Circular of China Banking Regulatory Commission on Printing and Distributing the Guideline for Banking Consumer Protection

Yin Jian Fa [2013] No.38

August 30, 2013

All local offices of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (hereinafter referred to as "CBRC"), policy banks, state-owned commercial banks, joint stock commercial banks, financial asset management companies, the China Postal Savings Banks of China, and the trust companies, enterprise group finance companies and financial leasing companies directly under the supervision of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Banking Association, China Trustee Association and China National Association of Finance Companies,

The Guideline for Banking Consumer Protection (hereinafter referred to as the "Guideline") is hereby printed and distributed to you for your implementation in compliance.

Guideline for Banking Consumer Protection

Chapter I General Provisions
　
Article 1 In order to protect the lawful rights and interests of banking consumers, safeguard a fair and impartial market environment, enhance the confidence of the public in banking market, promote healthy development of banking industry and maintain the stability of financial system, the Guideline is formulated in accordance with laws and regulations such as the Law of the People's Republic of China on Banking Regulation and Supervision and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Commercial Banks.
　
Article 2 The Guideline shall apply to banking financial institutions that have been established in accordance with the laws in China.
　
Article 3 Banking consumer herein refers to any natural person that purchases or uses banking products and receives banking services.
　
Article 4 Banking consumer protection herein refers to that, banking industry carries out appropriate procedures and takes proper measures to ensure that banking consumers will be treated in a fair, impartial and honest way at all stages of their business contacts with banking financial institutions.
　
Article 5 Banking consumer protection shall be subject to the persistence in people orientation, service and social responsibilities, fulfillment of obligations to make full disclosures to the banking consumers, fulfillment of responsibilities to treat banking consumers in an equitable way and be subject to the principle of fair trade, and the lawful rights and interests of banking consumers shall be protected in accordance with laws.
　
Article 6 The CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall supervise and administrate the protection of consumers in banking financial institutions.
　
Article 7 Banking financial institutions are the main bodies to carry out banking consumer protection.
Banking financial institutions shall follow the principles of compliance with laws and regulations and internal self-discipline; construct system and mechanisms for banking consumer protection and fulfill the obligations to protect the lawful rights and interests of banking consumers.
　
Article 8 Banking consumers shall have the rights to claim for non-infringement of their lawful rights and interest, supervise the protection of consumers of banking financial institutions and make relevant criticism and proposals, and accuse or charge acts or relevant personnel that infringe their lawful rights and interests.

Chapter II Code of Conduct
　
Article 9 Banking financial institutions shall give full respects to banking consumers' rights to know and choose, fulfill their obligations to inform, and shall not, in any way, conceal risks, exaggerate profits or make coercive transactions in the course of marketing products and services.
　
Article 10 Banking financial institutions shall give full respects to banking consumers' rights for fair trade and prepare formatted contractual and agreement documentation in a fair and equitable way, and shall not formulate misleading or deceptive provisions that may infringe the lawful rights and interests of banking consumers.
　
Article 11 Banking financial institutions shall understand the risk preference and tolerance of banking consumers, provide corresponding products and services, and shall not provide products or services that are beyond the risk tolerance of banking consumers.
　
Article 12 Banking financial institutions shall give full respects to banking consumers' security right in individual financial information, and take effective measures to enhance the protection over individual financial information. Banking financial institutions shall not falsify or illegally use the individual financial information of banking consumers, and shall not provide the same to a third party without the authorization or consent of such banking consumers.
　
Article 13 Banking financial institutions shall, in the course of product sales, strictly separate self-owned products from products sold on a commission basis, and shall not confuse the characteristics of the two and sell financial products to consumers in a misleading way.
　
Article 14 Banking financial institutions shall, in strict accordance with various regulations of the state on charges of financial services, disclose charging items and standards, and shall not add charging items or raise charging rates at discretion.
　
Article 15 Banking financial institutions shall stick to the principle of service facilitation, arrange the windows and counters in a reasonable way to reduce the waiting time, and shall not reject the reasonable service demands from banking consumers without causes.
　
Article 16 Banking financial institutions shall give full respects to banking consumers, care for the practical needs of special consumers such as the physically challenged people, and provide convenient services to the greatest extent, and shall not conduct any discriminatory act.

Chapter III System Guarantee
　
Article 17 Banking financial institutions shall enhance the construction of systems and mechanisms for banking consumer protection.
1. Banking financial institutions shall carry out banking consumer protection actively and explicitly include the same in corporate governance and construction of enterprise culture, and have it reflected in the development strategies.
2. The board of directors of a banking financial institution shall take the ultimate responsibilities for banking consumer protection.
The board of directors of a banking financial institution shall be in charge of formulating the strategies, policies and targets for banking consumer protection, urge senior management to effectively implement and carry out relevant work, periodically listen to senior management about their reports on the progress of banking consumer protection, and regard such work as important information for closure.
The board of directors of a banking financial institution shall be in charge of supervising and making assessment on the comprehensiveness, timeliness, effectiveness of banking consumer protection and fulfillment of duties by senior management.
The board of directors of a banking financial institution may authorize the special committees established thereunder to fulfill part of the functions above. The authorized committees shall submit relevant reports to the board of directors on a regular basis.
3. Senior management shall be in charge of formulating, reviewing periodically and supervising the implementation of measures, processes and specific operating procedures on banking consumer protection and grasp the situation of relevant work and ensure the offering of necessary resource supports, so as to promote the initiative and orderly development of banking consumer protection.
Banking financial institutions may, depending on the actual situation, establish a working committee of banking consumer protection consisting of relevant senior management and major principals of relevant departments, to make overall planning and arrangements for such protection.
4. Banking financial institutions shall establish or designate special department to be in charge of banking consumer protection. Such functional department shall have independence, authenticity and professional abilities to conduct relevant work and have access to directly reporting to the meeting of board of directors and the meeting of president (directors).
5. The functional department of banking consumer protection in a banking financial institution shall be in charge of leading, coordinating, urging, and guiding institutions of their levels and the subordinates thereto to conduct banking consumer protection.
　
Article 18 Banking financial institutions shall establish a perfect working system for banking consumer protection, including but not limited to:
1. The organizational structure and operating mechanism for banking consumer protection;
2. Internal control system for banking consumer protection;
3. Provisions on information disclosure of banking products and services;
4. Accepting procedures and handling process for complaints from banking consumers;
5. Framework and arrangements for educating banking consumers about financial knowledge;
6. Work reporting system for banking consumer protection;
7. Supervision and assessment systems for banking consumer protection; and
8. Pre-arranged plans for major and serious emergencies in banking consumer protection.
　
Article 19 Banking financial institutions shall establish and improve pre-event coordination and regulatory mechanisms for banking consumer protection, and carry out internal rules, regulations and regulatory requirements on all aspects such as design and development of products and services, pricing management, formulation of agreement, approval of access, marketing and promotion and after-sale management so that measures for banking consumer protection will be carried out before products and service enter into the market.
　
Article 20 Banking financial institutions shall enhance the disclosure of product and service information, and proactively state the information such as the natures, charges, and major provisions of contracts of products and service to banking consumers in the course of introducing such products and services. Banking financial institutions are prohibited to advertise in a fraudulent and misleading way and shall improve the authenticity and transparency of information, disclose product risks reasonably so that banking consumers may make reasonable judgments according to the relevant information.
　
Article 21 Banking financial institutions shall conduct education and training for employees proactively to help them intensify the awareness of banking consumer protection, understand the policies and process in relation to banking consumer protection, improve service skills, enrich professional knowledge, and improve the abilities of banking consumer protection.
　
Article 22 Banking financial institutions shall conduct activities on popularizing banking financial knowledge proactively, and prevent and solve potential contradictions by improving the financial awareness and quality of the public.
　
Article 23 Banking financial institutions shall provide necessary convenience for complaints from banking consumers to integrate, standardize and systematize the management of various complaints and ensure a smooth channel for complaints.
1 Banking financial institutions shall release methods and procedures for complaining at conspicuous positions in their business departments and web portals.
2. Banking financial institutions shall well register complaints and inform complainers of the acceptance, time limits for handling and contact ways in an effective way.
　
Article 24 Banking financial institutions shall improve the working mechanisms for handling complaints from banking consumers, and within a specified time, review, verify and handle on a timely basis such complaints; for banking products and services in question, remedial or corrective measures shall be taken; where loss has been caused, indemnities or compensations shall be made to banking consumers through amicable settlement, conciliation, arbitrage or litigations or in accordance with the relevant laws, regulations or contractual agreements.
Banking financial institutions shall make sure to handle complaints on the same product or service in a fair way.
　
Article 25 Banking financial institutions shall enhance the management for tracking results of complaint handling, summarize and analyze proposals from customers, and collect complaints on a regular basis, earnestly find weaknesses and potential risks in the products and services, urge the relevant department to make improvements in the levels of management systems, operating mechanisms, operating procedures and protocols and texts so as to practically safeguard the lawful rights and interests of banking consumers.
　
Article 26 Banking financial institutions shall formulate assessment systems for banking consumer protection, and include the results thereof in the internal comprehensive assessment indicator system of such institutions.
Banking financial institutions may entrust social intermediate agencies to make regular assessments on banking consumer protection to improve the effectiveness of such protection.
　
Article 27 Internal audit departments of banking financial institutions shall make independent reviews and assessments on the construction of system for and implementation of banking consumer protection.
　
Article 28 Banking financial institutions shall improve the internal supervision and restriction mechanisms for banking consumer protection, and enhance the accountability for failure to implement the internal rules, regulations and external regulatory requirements on such protection. Necessary penalties shall be given based on the extent of seriousness or harm to the lawful rights and interests of banking consumers to ensure that all provisions on banking consumer protection are practically carried out.
　
Article 29 Banking financial institutions shall establish emergency response mechanism for banking consumer protection, proactively monitor and handle major negative public sentiment and emergencies concerning banking consumer protection, and report to CBRC or the dispatched agencies thereof on a timely basis.
　
Article 30 Banking financial institutions shall summarize the progress of their banking consumer protection and submit working plans and work progress reports to CBRC and the dispatched agencies thereof according to the division of regulatory functions. Meanwhile, banking financial institutions shall, as appropriate, make regular disclosure of the progress of such protection to the public.

Chapter IV Supervision and Administration
　
Article 31 CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall follow the principles of prevention and education orientation, safeguarding rights in accordance laws and dealing by coordination, and formulate the overall strategies and system standards and continuously improve and perfect the relevant regulatory systems based on deep research into the good practices in domestic and foreign financial consumer protection and reasonable assessment on China's implementation of banking consumer protection.
　
Article 32 Banking consumer protection is an important part of regulatory work for the banking industry. CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall reflect and implement the ideals and requirements on banking consumer protection in all regulatory procedures such as market access, off-site supervision and onsite review.
　
Article 33 CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall assume the regulatory responsibilities for banking consumer protection and take measures and methods of risks supervision and behavior supervision to urge banking financial institutions to implement all the requirements on banking consumer protection.
　
Article 34 CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall organize and establish communication platforms for banking consumer protection, mobilize powers of all sectors of the society, utilize existing mechanism and resources to promote the construction of social network of banking consumer protection so as to improve the effectiveness and timeliness of the protection.
　
Article 35 CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall be fully aware of and verify the construction of systems and mechanisms, progress and actual achievements in banking consumer protection; establish and improve the assessment system of the banking consumer protection in banking financial institutions and include the assessment results into the comprehensive assessment system of regulatory to form linkage with regulatory measures such as market access, off-site supervision and on-site review so as to urge banking financial institutions to fulfill their responsibilities as a main body for banking consumer protection.
　
Article 36 CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall make risk disclosure or regulatory opinions on existing problems on banking consumer protection in banking financial institutions.
　
Article 37 CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall urge banking financial institutions to make corrections and accountabilities with respect to acts infringing the lawful rights and interests of banking consumers.
　
Article 38 CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall take necessary regulatory measures against banking financial institutions proved to infringe the lawful rights and interests of banking consumers, and urge them to make corrections.
　
Article 39 CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall disclose violation acts of banking financial institutions that have infringed the lawful rights and interests of banking consumers, the correction of such acts and handling of such institutions according to practical needs.
　
Article 40 CBRC and its dispatched agencies urge banking financial institutions to solve disputes with banking consumers in a proper way and accept complaints that have not been properly solved in the opinions of banking consumers and make coo-ordinations.
　
Article 41 CBRC and its dispatched agencies shall formulate targets and plans for education of banking consumers and urge banking financial institutions to establish systems for propaganda of banking knowledge and education of consumers.

Chapter V Supplementary Provisions
　
Article 42 The Guideline shall be interpreted by CBRC.
　
Article 43 This Guideline shall come into force as of the date of promulgation.