[Epoch Times November 25, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Liu Yi comprehensive report) Huabei, a consumer loan business under the Ant Group of Mainland China, released instructions on starting brand isolation on November 24. Huabei will become Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. The exclusive consumer credit brand of (Ant Consumer Finance) will be updated to a “buy on credit” type of service.
Huabei issued a statement on its Weibo on the 24th that after brand isolation, Huabei will become the exclusive brand of Ant Consumer Finance Company and continue to provide small and medium-sized consumer services, but consumer credit funded by banks and other financial institutions will no longer Called “Huabe”, it was changed to the “Credit Purchase” brand, and the name of the financial institution that provided the credit was directly displayed.
Huabei said that after brand isolation, Huabei and “buy on credit” services will maintain the same core experience in terms of interest-free period, account checking, and repayment, and the rate of “buy on credit” services will remain stable; in the future, “buy on credit” The service fee rate is independently approved and determined by the financial institution.
At present, some users’ Huabei services have been updated to “Huabei” and “Buy on Credit” services. Huabei said that “in the future, this work will gradually cover more users in batches.”
Huabei’s brand isolation has aroused users’ attention, and more users are concerned about the changes in their own quotas and the impact of credit investigations.
According to a report by the “Beijing Business Daily” on November 24, before the Huabei official announcement brand was quarantined, some netizens reported that the quota was reduced from tens of thousands of yuan to a few thousand yuan. In response to this, Huabei said that after brand isolation, Huabei will mainly meet the daily small and medium consumption needs of users. Users who need more quota requirements can apply through the “Buy on Credit” service.
According to the analysis by Jin Tian, a senior researcher at the Institute of Digital Economy, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Huabei split has little impact on daily consumption and credit payment users, but it does not affect users who have large amounts of excessive consumption or investment, speculation and other cash borrowing purposes. The impact is still relatively large. One is that convenient borrowing channels may not be available (the risk control review of bank-funded products is usually stricter than that of Internet institutions); the second is that the cost of borrowing after compulsory distribution to cash loan products is likely to be higher than that of consumer loans with scenes.
Caixin.com reported on the 24th that after the brand isolation, the funds of the new “Huabe” and “Borbe” brands are all funded by Ant; the joint loan jointly operated by the two small loan companies and the bank is the same as the independent financing service of the bank. They are all placed under the “Credit Purchase” and “Credit Loan” pages.
After Huabei initiated the brand isolation, some users expressed dissatisfaction, “I have somehow reduced my quota to 1,000, and I don’t want to use it anyway.”
Commentator Wen Xiaogang told The Epoch Times that the CCP authorities began to rectify private loans such as Huabei this year. The main reason is that the CCP authorities do not allow private enterprises to intervene in the financial system. The CCP believes that finance is one of the cornerstones of its governance and stability. In addition, once private enterprises become bigger, it is not in line with the CCP’s ruling ideology of “national advancement and private retreat”. Therefore, since the beginning of this year, the CCP has continued to crack down on large private enterprises such as Internet technology companies and private education companies. Domination to ensure its dominance.
Huabei is called Ant Huabei in its entirety. It is a consumer credit product launched by Ant Financial. Users will receive a consumption line ranging from RMB 500 to RMB 50,000 after opening. When users are consuming, they can advance the amount of Ant Huabei and enjoy the shopping experience of “consumption first, pay later”.
Huabei was officially launched in April 2015, mainly for shopping on Tmall and Taobao. Subsequently, Ant Huabei broke the restrictions of shopping platforms and expanded its services to more online and offline consumer areas.
Editor in charge: Lin Congwen
.