It has been more than a month since the official document of the “New Rules for Credit Cards” was issued. According to the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter, many banks have standardized the display of bank credit card interest charges in accordance with the requirements of the new regulations, and changed the original display of only part of the interest rate or handling fee to the annualized comprehensive interest rate cost. Make the interest and charges incurred in the use of credit cards “clear at a glance”.
According to the requirements of the “Notice on Further Promoting the Standardized and Healthy Development of Credit Card Business” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”) issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the People’s Bank of China, banking financial institutions have effectively improved the standardization and transparency of credit card interest and fee management, and strictly Fulfill the obligation to explain interest charges, display the highest annualized interest rate level in an obvious way, and continue to take effective measures to reduce the interest and charge burden on customers, and actively promote the reasonable decline of credit card interest charges. At the same time, for the credit card installment business, the regulatory authorities also require banking financial institutions to specify the minimum starting amount and the upper limit of the maximum amount, and uniformly use the form of interest to display the cost of using funds for the installment business, and not induce excessive use of installments to increase customer interest charges.
“This is what banks should do originally, and this is one of the measures taken to protect consumers’ rights and interests.” Some bank credit card industry insiders pointed out that the regulation requires improving the standardization and transparency of credit card interest and fee management. The Bank strictly fulfilled its obligation to explain interest and charges, displayed the highest annualized interest rate level in an obvious way, and continued to take effective measures to reduce the interest and charge burden on customers, and actively promote a reasonable decline in the level of credit card interest charges.
A number of banks disclose approximate converted annualized interest ratesStandardize credit card installment business
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter noticed that recently, China Merchants Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and other banks have changed the expression of credit card interest charges.
In the installment business short message recently sent by China Merchants Bank to customers, the principal, handling fee and approximate annualized interest rate for each installment of the business have been clearly marked, which more intuitively shows the rate of installment business. Before last year, the bank’s credit card installment interest rate was vaguely expressed in the text message, such as only the discount of the handling fee, the single-period handling fee rate and other information.
ICBC’s official website released a preferential activity of “40% off the handling fee for bill installments and consumption transfer installments for a limited time”, and also clearly disclosed the approximate converted annualized interest rate.
The activity page shows that from July 1, 2022 to September 30, 2022, ICBC credit card bill instalment, consumption transfer to instalment will enjoy a 40% discount on the instalment fee, and the one-year fee rate after the discount is 4.32%, which is approximately converted. The annualized interest rate (simple interest) is 7.88%. In addition, the activity page also provides the bill instalment and consumption transfer instalment activity rate tables for different periods.
In addition to the installment interest rate, some banks have also re-explained the charges for credit card services and the method of interest calculation, and marked the relevant situations such as credit card penalty interest.
Zhongyuan Bank issued an announcement showing that the current non-cash transaction of customers and their supplementary cardholders is the interest-free repayment period from the bank account date to the due repayment date (inclusive). Repay the full amount of the current bill within the interest-free repayment period, without paying interest on non-cash transactions. Otherwise, the daily interest rate will be 5/10,000 from the bank’s account date to the settlement date (annual interest rate is about 18.25%, affected by factors such as the number of days in each month and Party B’s repayment situation, the actual annualized interest rate is the same as the above There may be differences in the annualized interest rate, the same below) to calculate and collect interest. For the interest that is not repaid on time, Party A will calculate and collect compound interest on a monthly basis according to the above interest rate standards.
Abusive credit card charges have been criticizedRectification is imperative
In recent years, the phenomenon of arbitrary credit card charges has been criticized, and customer complaints about bank credit cards remain high. According to data released by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, in the first quarter of 2022, there were 37,954 complaints involving credit card business, accounting for 50% of the total number of complaints. Comparing the data in the fourth and third quarters of 2021, the proportion of credit card complaints was 49.6% and 50.8%, respectively.
The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission pointed out that some banking financial institutions have unclear disclosure of interest and fee levels, unilaterally promote low interest rates and low rates, collect interest in disguised form in the name of handling fees, obscure actual use costs, and unreasonably set too low a starting point for bill instalment or not. Problems such as setting a starting point and implementing automatic instalment without the customer’s self-confirmation make it difficult for customers to judge the cost of capital use, and even increase the customer’s interest and fee burden.
It is understood that many bank credit cards often used words such as “zero interest rate” and “zero handling fee” to attract customers to install instalments or apply for credit cards. But these “free” are often not really free of fees. For example, when the “zero interest rate” is charged, a certain percentage of the handling fee is charged.
According to the black cat complaint platform, some bank credit cards have been complained about the issue of interest charges. If there is a user complaint, a joint-stock bank charges a high amount of the minimum credit card repayment interest and liquidated damages every month without notifying the customer of the revolving interest and liquidated damages charging standards and rates; another bank charges due to ambiguous items. Complaints for other reasons.
Some people in the banking industry told Shell Finance reporters that listed banks have been relatively standardized in terms of fees and consumer rights protection. Documents have been issued in the past few years. Now there are not many similar complaints, and more are negotiated repayment and penalty interest reduction. .
“push back”credit card reformStandardize interest charges and installment business
According to industry insiders, from the perspective of the new regulations, the promotion of a reasonable downward trend in interest charges has been emphasized again. This is an opportunity and a challenge to truly test operating capabilities for financial institutions that used to operate extensively in the past.
Zhou Maohua, a macro researcher of the Financial Market Department of China Everbright Bank, told reporters that the implementation of the new credit card regulations to standardize charges and installments is mainly aimed at some irregularities in the market. to protect the legitimate rights and interests of all parties, and to promote the healthy and standardized development of the credit card business. For banks, it helps to reduce complaints under the irregular operation of credit cards.
Senior credit card researcher Dong Zheng said that the reason why regulators once again put forward measures to regulate the healthy development of the credit card business is to make the credit card business clear its source and drive the credit card business from extensive development to refined operation.
He pointed out that in this “reverse-forced” reform, it is no longer a discussion about whether to change, but how to change. The choice before the card issuing bank is that whoever completes the transformation first will be in the credit card business in the future. in a favorable position.
In addition, Zhou Maohua also believes that in recent years, the issuance of credit cards has slowed down. Banking and financial institutions have actively increased the disposal of bad credit cards. The country has accelerated the correction of regulatory shortcomings and chaos, and accelerated the standardization of industry development. From the perspective of trends, it is expected that in the future, banks will gradually develop in the direction of steady growth in credit card business.
Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Wang Yuchen
Edited by Chen Li, proofreaded by Chen DiyanReturn to Sohu, see more
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