China’s top banking authorities have issued a new directive to standardise the development of domestic credit card operations.
The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) and the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) recently jointly issued the “Notice on Further Driving the Standardised and Healthy Development of Credit Card Operations” (关于进一步促进信用卡业务规范健康发展的通知).
CBIRC and PBOC said that the Notice was for the purpose of “raising the quality and efficiency of credit card operations in bringing benefit to the people and pragmatically protecting the lawful rights and interests of financial consumers.”
“The credit card operations of China’s bankings sector financial institutions have seen rapid development in recent years, and play an important role in bringing convenience to payments by the public and daily consumption,” said CBIRC and PBOC.
“However, recently the operating concepts of some banking sector financial institutions with regard to credit card operations have become rough, service consciousness is not strong, and risk control and management has not been place, with conduct that causes harm to the interests of customers.”
Key contents of the Notice include:
- Standardising credit card interest and fee collection.
- Pragmatically strengthening protections of the rights and interests of consumers.
- Transforming the “rough” model of development.
- Standardising management of external cooperation.
- Further driving greater convenience of online services for credit cards.