Is cash loan a financial innovation or a "trap" for online usury? What risks are involved? How to supervise in the future?
"3 seconds to complete the loan", "ID card 1 minute application" ... Open the mobile app store and enter the words "cash loan", and attractive advertising slogans from all platforms come one after another. Cash loans generally come from 500 yuan to 2,000 yuan, with a term of 7 to 30 days.
"There are thousands of cash loan platforms on the market now, many of which are transformed from P2P platforms, and many of them are newly established, because this industry makes money, which can be said to be profiteering." An insider of the cash loan platform told reporters that the comprehensive loan interest rate of this industry is very high now, not to mention the annualized interest rate of 500%, or even 1000%.
According to the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Private Lending Cases, which came into effect on September 1 2005, if the interest rate agreed by both lenders and borrowers exceeds the annual interest rate of 36%, the excess interest shall be deemed invalid.
The reporter's investigation found that in order to avoid this legal red line, domestic cash lending platforms usually add fees, fast credit review fees and account management fees to borrowers in a hidden way.
The reporter saw on a "prepaid" product of the cash loan platform "Qianzhan" APP that a 7-day loan of 1 1,000 yuan, although the interest is only 1.05 yuan, still needs to collect information authentication fees, risk control service fees, etc. totaling * * * 96.95 yuan, and the actual amount received is only 903.05 yuan. The annual interest rate of such comprehensive loans is as high as 505%.
What is even more criticized is the high overdue fine charged by the cash loan platform. The reporter saw on the "Money Station" that there is a product of "Cash Man". If it is overdue for 1 day, 20 yuan will be charged a late fee, which means that the loan of 1 10,000 yuan will be repaid twice as long as it is overdue for 50 days.
Bing Wang, director of Shanghai Bailiang Law Firm, pointed out that in addition to charging high interest and late fees, some cash lending platforms also use violence to collect overdue borrowers. In addition, the reporter's investigation found that some cash lending platforms completely ignored the protection of consumers' rights and interests, and the user information was seriously leaked.
According to the data analysis of more than 200,000 borrowers, nearly 40% of cash loan users have a monthly income of less than 5,000 yuan, mainly young people aged 20 to 30, with relatively low academic qualifications. These small funds are not only used for consumption, but also for temporary telephone calls, tax payment, capital turnover and other emergencies.
In terms of regional distribution, there are five provinces with more than 1 10,000 borrowers, Guangdong Province is far ahead with 35,000 borrowers, and the number of users in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian and Sichuan provinces all exceeds 654.38+110,000.
Guo Yuhang, chairman of Star Joint Venture, pointed out that the bank's risk control is based on the central bank's credit reporting, but there are 600 million people in China who have no credit reporting records. Moreover, at least 240 million netizens with a monthly income of less than 5,000 yuan do not have credit cards, and they are all potential users of cash loans.
However, the characteristics of this group of borrowers also doomed the hidden financial risks of cash loans. According to the report released by Baifu Finance, 56.5% of customers have applied for cash loans for more than two times, and the proportion of customers who have applied for cash loans for two to five times is the highest, reaching 36.7%. Among the customers who applied for loans many times, 49.4% of them applied for loans from many institutions.
According to the report of CMB Qianhai Finance, the credit overdue risk of long borrowers is three to four times that of ordinary customers. Every time a loan applicant applies for an institution, the probability of default will increase by 20%. Once the downward pressure on the economy increases, it may also become the fuse of the debt crisis when there is a large area of long-term lending and excessive credit in the industry.
"Cash loan is a kind of consumer loan, which has a certain market base, but at the same time, supervision should be strengthened." Meng Tian, deputy director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Finance of Shanghai University, said.
In response to the rapid expansion of cash loans, Ji Zhihong, director of the Financial Markets Department of the Central Bank, said on the 28th that the next step will be to implement penetrating supervision in accordance with the principle that substance is more important than form.
"It is extremely urgent to take measures such as unblocking and blocking simultaneously to strengthen the rectification of cash loans." Dong Ximiao, a senior researcher at Chongyang Financial Research Institute of Renmin University of China, pointed out that on the one hand, if the cash loan platform with disorderly operation and chaotic management fails to pass the filing according to regulations, measures should be taken to resolutely withdraw. At the same time, financial supervision departments should strengthen cooperation with public security, courts and other departments, and judicial organs should promptly intervene in acts such as fraudulent loans, illegal lending and illegal debt collection to form a high-pressure situation.
In addition to strengthening supervision, Guo Yuhang believes that one of the ways to end the chaos of cash loans is to let this financial product run in the sun and carry out licensed management.
Industry insiders suggest that an access system should be established, the main qualification and business scope requirements of cash loans should be clarified in industrial and commercial registration, and the legal status of industry practitioners should be established; Establish appropriate industry norms and limit outstanding issues such as loan interest rate, multi-head lending and rolling loan extension.
Jiang Han, a special researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute, believes that credit card services can't cover all consumers yet, but after 80 s and 90 s, they are used to borrowing by installments and repaying by installments. Therefore, the focus of cash loan control should be on the consumption scene, and the tracking of consumers' purchase process and loan use should be strengthened.