Xinhua daily telegraph reporter
"No credit investigation, no attention to black and white, 100% payment", "Only ID card is needed, and it will arrive at the account as quickly as possible, with a daily interest rate of 0.01%" & hellip; … Nowadays, all kinds of online loan advertisements are full of tricks.
However, according to a survey conducted by Xinhua Daily Telegraph, some heavily advertised online lending platforms are actually "714 anti-aircraft guns" (that is, high-interest online loans with a loan term of 7 days and 14 days generally include high beheading interest and overdue fees). They blatantly provide "beheading loans" and "campus loans" that are explicitly prohibited, and even listed companies in the industry engage in yin-yang contracts, charge high "beheading interest", carry out violent collection, steal citizens’ privacy, infringe on citizens’ reputation and even endanger personal safety.
Experts pointed out that many illegal online lending platforms lend illegally, disrupting the Internet financial market and aggravating financial risks, which has become a negative factor affecting social stability. It is urgent for relevant departments to attach great importance to it, intensify crackdown and supervision, and maintain the safe, healthy and standardized development of the Internet financial market.
"714 anti-aircraft gun" is rampant, illegally collecting "calling you to death"
According to the advertisements pushed by some social software, the reporter of Xinhua Daily Telegraph downloaded three online loan apps: Water Image Staging, Music Staging and Seconds Lending.
After registering and logging in, I submitted my personal ID card, face recognition, work address, home address and address book step by step. The three apps gave 3,200 yuan, 2,600 yuan and 2,000 yuan respectively, and the loan period was 28 days, 14 days and 7 days respectively. After the reporter clicked to confirm the loan order, it was discovered that 800 yuan was deducted from both "Water Elephant Staging" and "Music Staging", and the actual receipts were 2,400 yuan and 1,800 yuan respectively; 600 yuan was deducted from the "second loan", and the actual account was 1,400 yuan. The above three online lending platforms are typical "714 anti-aircraft guns".
According to the reporter’s investigation, after CCTV exposed the "714 anti-aircraft gun" on March 15, a large number of illegal online lending platforms were still rampant. Some platforms have developed the "55 Super Anti-aircraft Gun", that is, borrowing money from 1000 yuan and getting it to 500 yuan, and paying back 1,200 yuan five days later.
In an online loan APP called Rongze Fortune, the reporter downloaded and tested more than a dozen loan "mouths" such as "long loan wallet", "red carp" and "free flowers", and found that most of them belonged to "55 super anti-aircraft guns". Although some "mouths" extend the repayment period to 30 days, they set a payment every 5 days, and the interest exceeds the legal 36%.
It is worth noting that most of the "714 anti-aircraft guns" APPs cannot be searched and downloaded in Apple or Android app stores, and need to be downloaded through specific links. Most of these online lending platforms send links through SMS. Once the user’s mobile phone number is registered in one of these platforms, a large number of platforms will bombard them with SMS. Moreover, these apps will change their names and pages from time to time to avoid supervision. Take "Water Elephant Staging" as an example. At present, the APP has been removed from Apple and Android app stores, but cash loan advertisements and download addresses can still be found on some social software.
Industry insiders told Xinhua Daily Telegraph that there are thousands of "714 anti-aircraft guns" platforms in China at present, and even if the bad debt rate of the whole industry remains high, there are huge profits. The platform will guide borrowers to go to the next affiliated company to repay the interest when they have not paid the interest. Theoretically speaking, as long as the risks are properly controlled, the "transfer from single account to flat account" and "repayment by loan" can be circulated indefinitely.
While the "714 anti-aircraft guns" are endless, it is also worthy of vigilance for unqualified e-commerce platforms to issue "campus loans".
In February this year, Gao Jianjun (a pseudonym), a senior majoring in history at Yunnan Normal University, accidentally clicked an advertisement link in a short message on her mobile phone and downloaded an APP called "Little Elephant Excellent Product". After uploading personal identity information on the loan interface, Gao Jianjun got a quota of 21,000 yuan, and the system automatically set the repayment period in March, with a total repayment amount of 25,400 yuan.
Gao Jianjun told Xinhua Daily Telegraph that after he paid off the second installment, he had no money to pay his debts due to difficulties in life, and he was overdue. Xiaoxiang Youpin called him five or six times a day to collect debts. Gao Jianjun asked the customer service for a contract, demanding that the interest be adjusted according to law. The customer service said that there was no contract.
The reporter learned from the customer service consultation of "Xiaoxiang Youpin" that the lending target of this platform is adults over the age of 18, whether they are college students or not. This is obviously inconsistent with the requirement of "suspending all online lending institutions to carry out online lending business for college students" in the Notice on Further Strengthening the Standardized Management of Campus Loans issued by the former CBRC and other departments.
The reporter searched Tianyan and found that "Elephant Premium" belongs to Beijing Source Shi Yun Technology Co., Ltd. and is an online shopping platform. Its business scope includes technology development and service, software development and design, advertising and so on, and it is not qualified to issue small loans.
With the "714 anti-aircraft gun" and "campus loan" rampant, illegal collection is more frequent. In May last year, Li Yong (pseudonym), a citizen of Kunming, Yunnan, borrowed 70,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan respectively through the "Hengyi Loan" APP and "Yunqiandai" APP, all of which were repaid in 24 installments, with the total repayment amount reaching more than 120,000 yuan and 90,000 yuan respectively. In May of this year, Li Yong failed to repay the loan on time because of his business failure and the capital chain was broken. What Li Yong didn’t expect was that both institutions collected debts from him through outsourcing collection companies. Every day, dozens of collection calls took turns harassing and insulting him, and repeatedly called his address book contacts, posing as "public security organs" to forge legal documents to threaten and intimidate. Li Yong couldn’t bear it, and finally borrowed money from relatives and friends to repay the debt.
Like Li Yong’s experience, in recent years, the phenomenon of online lending institutions collecting money by means of violence or soft violence has become increasingly rampant, which not only causes physical and mental troubles to borrowers, but also endangers social stability. According to industry insiders, "calling you to death" and SMS bombing are low-cost collection methods. Online lending institutions entrust third-party collection agencies to carry out illegal collection, and if something goes wrong, they will blame the collectors.
Overseas listed companies receive "beheading interest" in disguise.
The complaint case from the "21CN Gathering Complaints" platform shows that on December 22, 2017, Sun Yue (pseudonym) borrowed 80,000 yuan through the "Pleasant Loan" APP and repaid it in 36 installments. She received 80,000 yuan after submitting her personal ID card, address book, work address, bank card and other information on the "Pleasant Loan" APP.
However, afterwards, she saw the loan contract from the "Pleasant Loan" official website. The contract showed that the principal was 103,896.10 yuan, and the extra 23,896.10 yuan was the information consulting service fee. On the "Pleasant Loan" APP, Sun Yue needs to repay 3,974.22 yuan per month, and the total repayment in 36 installments is 143,071.98 yuan (reporter’s note: 3,974.22 yuan *36 installments = 143,071.92 yuan).
Why is the amount received different from the contract principal? When Sun Yue complained about this problem, the customer service of Yirendai responded that the platform provided a series of services such as information collection and publication, credit evaluation, loan matching and post-loan management, so the platform charged 23,896.10 yuan for information consulting service. Sun Yue’s annual comprehensive rate is about 26.28%, which includes all expenses and does not exceed the annual interest rate of 36% stipulated by the Supreme People’s Court, so it does not belong to usury. The customer service also said that the annual comprehensive rate, monthly repayment amount, contract amount, hand-in amount, term and other contents have been informed on the page during the loan operation, and the contract was signed after the customer himself confirmed it.
However, Sun Yue told reporters that when she APPlied for a loan on the "Pleasant Loan" app, after clicking Submit Information, there was no page prompt about the information consultation service fee. She only checked the contract on the website of "Pleasant Loan" and found that the information consulting service fee of 23,896.10 yuan was included in the principal. "This is obviously false propaganda and contract fraud." Sun Yue said.
Can the information consulting service fee be included in the principal? In fact, the relevant laws and regulations have long made clear provisions on the "smart" behavior of collecting "beheading interest" in disguise, including various service fees into the principal, raising the interest rate and increasing the repayment amount.
According to Article 27 of the Provisions of the Supreme People’s Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Private Lending Cases issued in 2015, the loan amount specified in creditor’s rights certificates such as IOUs, receipts and IOUs is generally recognized as the principal. If interest is deducted from the principal in advance, the people’s court shall recognize the actual amount lent as the principal.
On December 1, 2017, the Office of the Leading Group for Special Remediation of Internet Financial Risks and the Office of the Leading Group for Special Remediation of P2P Online Loan Risks jointly issued the Notice on Standardizing and Rectifying the "Cash Loan" Business, clearly stipulating that it is not allowed to match or disguise the lending business that does not meet the relevant interest rate provisions of the law; It is forbidden to deduct interest, handling fee, management fee and deposit from the loan principal in advance, and set high overdue interest, late payment fee and penalty interest.
Yuan Qiongfei, a lawyer of Yunnan Quanzhong Law Firm, believes that it is illegal for online lending platforms to deduct various fees in advance and charge "beheading interest" in disguise, and the base for calculating interest rates can only be the principal, and various service fees should only be calculated as interest. If you want to charge a service fee, you should charge it in one lump sum, and you should not charge it again as the principal and raise interest.
In addition, "pleasant loan" still has illegal acts such as violent collection and infringement of citizens’ privacy, among which there are many threats and intimidation. On March 11th, 2019, due to the shortage of funds, Sun Yue failed to repay the monthly repayment of RMB 3,974.22. Since then, the "Pleasant Loan" collector has been harassing the contact person in Sun Yue’s address book, calling his work unit for many times, spreading the message that Sun Yue is "in debt", threatening Sun Yue to repay the loan and overdue fees of more than 500 yuan. Sun Yue’s reputation was damaged and he was under great mental pressure.
According to the reporter’s investigation, Sun Yue’s experience is not a case. According to the platform of "21CN Gathering Complaints", "Pleasant Loan" was launched as a collective complaint on March 9, 2018. As of press time, there were 3,470 effective complaints, of which 361 were effectively solved, with an effective settlement rate of 10.4%. "Yin-Yang contract", "usury" and "violent collection" are the three biggest complaints from users. On the Internet, there are also reports about the victim’s suicide, death and mental disorder caused by the violent collection of "Pleasant Loan".
According to Tianyancha, "Yirendai" belongs to Hengcheng Technology Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd., and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on December 18th, 2015. It is the "first overseas listing of Internet finance in China".
The problem of "information island" in financial supervision remains to be solved
Statistics show that by the end of 2018, the overall transaction volume of the online lending industry was 1.7 trillion yuan. Since June 2017, China has found more than 10 million illegal collections, with 790,000 perpetrators and 920,000 victims.
Experts believe that 2019 is a year to lay a solid foundation for preventing and resolving financial risks. The risk of illegal online lending is high, and it is necessary to focus on increasing the crackdown. Many illegal online lending platforms have become "variants" of private usury, challenging the legal red line in the cloak of Internet finance. At present, there are a large number of online lending institutions that are still carrying out illegal business in China, and it is conservatively estimated that there are more than 800. The regulatory loopholes behind the barbaric growth of the online lending industry are worthy of vigilance.
Dong Ximiao, deputy dean of Chongyang Financial Research Institute of Renmin University of China, said that at present, the cash loan interest rate of some Internet finance companies is extremely high and opaque. While breaking through the legal red line, they set various traps and increase the burden on borrowers. Due to the general lack of identification ability of loan customers, they are easy to fall into the "routine" and the cost of defending their rights afterwards is very high.
Experts believe that online lending platforms, as a supplement to loans from banking financial institutions, have their social value, which to a certain extent bears investors’ demand for wealth management and reduces the cost of social financing. However, due to imperfect policies and regulations and lax supervision and management, a large number of illegal online lending platforms have become tools for illegal enterprises and individuals to seize high profits, damaging the legitimate rights and interests of borrowers and lenders.
Online lending should develop in an orderly manner within the framework of standardization and institutionalization. Experts suggest that relevant departments should prevent and block regulatory loopholes from the system, accelerate the filing process of legal and compliant online lending institutions, and resolutely retreat and shut down unqualified online lending institutions. At the same time, it is necessary to crack down on illegal online lending institutions to use the evil forces to carry out violent debt collection and increase the seizure of false online lending advertisements.
Ouyang Rihui, vice president of the Internet Economic Research Institute of the Central University of Finance and Economics, believes that China’s regulatory authorities are obviously lagging behind in the technical construction of Internet finance, which is manifested in the lack of an effective financial risk monitoring, evaluation, early warning and prevention system and a complete set of systematic statistical investigation, risk early warning, disposal, buffering and remedy mechanisms.
"The standardized development of the Internet financial market needs to accelerate the development of regulatory technology." Ouyang Rihui suggested that a digital supervision system should be established through digital technology, and a three-level model system for Internet financial risk monitoring and early warning should be established: platform self-control monitoring system, industry association monitoring system, and regulatory agency monitoring system, so as to change the current situation of "manual counting" and "sports" passive supervision and post-event supervision, and realize real-time supervision, behavioral supervision and functional supervision. At the same time, it is necessary to do a good job in information disclosure of the platform and information sharing between the platform and the regulatory layer, integrate information resources, and solve the "information island" problem existing in Internet financial supervision.
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