The central bank shot! These loan routines are all cold.

On the last day of March, the central bank made a heavy voice on the loan interest rate!

The People's Bank of China announced on March 3 1 that in order to maintain the competitive order in the loan market and protect the legitimate rights and interests of financial consumers, all loan products should clearly indicate the annualized loan interest rate.

Image source: China People's Bank

The daily interest rate should not be more obvious than the annualized interest rate

According to the announcement, when marketing through websites, mobile applications, posters and other channels, all institutions engaged in loan business should show the annualized interest rate to borrowers in an obvious way and specify it when signing the loan contract. Information such as daily interest rate and monthly interest rate can also be displayed at the same time as needed, but it cannot be more obvious than annualized interest rate.

The reporter noted that the information of some loan products still shows the daily interest rate instead of the annual interest rate.

"Online lending has a hidden rule, which is to focus on publicizing the daily interest rate. The annual interest rate may be marked sometimes, but it is often in a small font size, which is not easy to be noticed. I was confused by the daily interest rate at that time. " A financial consumer who has used Internet platform loans told reporters.

For example, the promotion page of a take-away App loan product only shows the introduction of "1000 yuan a day, and the lowest interest rate is in 0.3 yuan".

Source: a takeaway App

The reporter also found on a bank's App that the bank's loan products only showed a daily interest rate of 0.025% on the publicity page, and the annual interest rate was not clearly marked.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has clearly pointed out that some institutions or online platforms unilaterally emphasize preferential conditions such as low daily interest rate, interest-free period and zero interest rate installment. The research group of the Financial Consumer Rights Protection Bureau of the People's Bank of China previously stressed that some small loan products basically show the daily interest rate to consumers, and after converting the annualized interest rate, the interest rate is higher than that of bank credit card business.

Restrain vicious competition of financial institutions

The announcement is an important measure for the regulatory authorities to strengthen the management of online lending business. Su, an expert in consumer finance, said, "Previously, some financial institutions and Internet platforms did not disclose or less disclose loan interest rates or were induced, which was suspected of infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of financial consumers, which was not conducive to the healthy development of the consumer finance market."

Su stressed that the purpose of supervision is to unify the disclosure method of loan interest rate from the financial marketing propaganda link, which can not only curb the vicious competition of financial institutions using the loopholes of improper propaganda, but also protect the financial consumers' right to know, which is conducive to promoting healthy competition in the consumer financial market in the long run.

It is worth mentioning that the announcement makes it clear that the annualized loan interest rate should be calculated according to the ratio of all loan fees charged to borrowers to the actual loan principal, and converted into annualized form. Among them, the loan cost should include interest and various expenses directly related to the loan. The loan principal shall be specified in the loan contract or other creditor's rights certificate. If the principal is repaid by installments, the actually occupied loan principal shall be calculated based on the remaining principal after repayment of each installment.

Image source: China People's Bank

"In recent years, there have been frequent chaos in the loan market. In addition to data security and violent collection, different standards and opaque interest rates are also one of the problems. " Yu Baicheng, president of Zero One Research Institute, said that there is also controversy in the industry about the calculation method of interest rate of installment loan products. Some use nominal interest rates, while others use internal rate of return. Generally speaking, the standard of internal rate of return is more stringent. Subsequently, on the basis of transparency of interest rate information, borrowers will pay more attention to and compare interest rates, and products with high interest rates in similar products will be greatly affected.

Su said that the IRR method was marked in the announcement to calculate the cost, and two schemes of one-time repayment of principal and interest and installment repayment were given, which not only unified the calculation method of loan interest rate, but also provided an effective reference for institutions in the follow-up practice.

In addition, the announcement said that institutions engaged in loan business include, but are not limited to, deposit-taking financial institutions, auto finance companies, consumer finance companies, microfinance companies, and internet platforms that provide advertising or display platforms for loan business.

Industry experts also reminded that the Internet platform that provides advertising or display platform for loan business may become a "depression" for supervision. The loan business sources of some Internet platforms are very diverse, and whether it can be implemented in accordance with the regulations remains to be considered.

Original title: "The central bank has shot! These loan routines are cold. "