Measures for the administration of consumer rights protection of banks and insurance institutions
(Promulgated by Order No.9 of the Bank of China Insurance Regulatory Commission on February 26, 2022, and effective as of March 26, 2023)
Chapter I General Principles
Article 1 In order to maintain a fair and just financial market environment, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in the banking and insurance industries, and promote the high-quality and healthy development of the industry, these Measures are formulated in accordance with the Banking Supervision Law of the People's Republic of China, the People's Republic of China (PRC) Commercial Bank Law, the People's Republic of China (PRC) Insurance Law and the People's Republic of China (PRC) Consumer Protection Law.
Article 2 The term "banking insurance institutions" as mentioned in these Measures refers to banking financial institutions and insurance institutions legally established in People's Republic of China (PRC) to provide financial products or services to consumers.
Article 3 Bank insurance institutions shall bear the main responsibility of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Bank insurance institutions shall treat consumers fairly, justly and honestly in the whole process of business operation through appropriate procedures and measures.
Fourth consumers should be honest and trustworthy, rational consumption, prudent investment, and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests according to law.
Article 5 The Insurance Regulatory Commission of the Bank of China (hereinafter referred to as China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China) and its dispatched offices shall supervise and administer consumer rights protection activities in the banking and insurance industries according to law.
Article 6 The protection of consumers' rights and interests in banking and insurance industries shall follow the principles of legality, equality, voluntariness, honesty and trustworthiness.
Chapter II Working Mechanism and Management Requirements
Article 7 Banking and insurance institutions shall incorporate the protection of consumers' rights and interests into corporate governance, corporate culture construction and business development strategies, establish and improve consumer rights and interests protection systems and mechanisms, and make consumer rights and interests protection requirements run through all aspects of business processes.
Article 8 The board of directors of banks and insurance institutions shall bear the ultimate responsibility for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, make overall planning and guidance on the protection of consumers' rights and interests, and the board of directors shall set up a consumer rights protection committee. The senior management should establish and improve the management system for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, and ensure that the objectives and policies for the protection of consumers' rights and interests are effectively implemented. The board of supervisors shall supervise the performance of the board of directors and senior management personnel in protecting consumers' rights and interests.
Bank insurance institutions shall designate departments to perform the duties of protecting consumers' rights and interests, and take the lead in organizing, supervising and guiding all departments to carry out the work of protecting consumers' rights and interests.
Article 9 Banking and insurance institutions shall establish a review mechanism for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, improve the review system, and review the protection of consumers' rights and interests in the design and development, pricing management, agreement formulation, marketing and publicity of products and services provided to consumers, so as to prevent violations of consumers' legitimate rights and interests from the source. When new products and services are introduced or the terms of existing products and services involving consumers' interests change significantly, they should be reviewed.
Article 10 Banking and insurance institutions shall establish and improve the information disclosure mechanism for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, and follow the principles of truthfulness, accuracy, completeness and timeliness to disclose key information of products and services in the whole process of pre-sale, sale and after-sale.
Bank insurance institutions shall regularly disclose the development of consumer rights protection to the public through annual reports and other appropriate means.
Article 11 A bank insurance institution shall establish a consumer suitability management mechanism, evaluate product risks, implement hierarchical dynamic management, evaluate consumers' risk perception, risk preference and risk tolerance, and provide suitable products for suitable consumers.
Article 12 Banking and insurance institutions shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions, establish a traceability management mechanism for sales behavior, record and preserve the sales process of products and services, and use modern information technology to enhance the convenience of traceability management, so as to realize traceability of key links, inquiry of important information and confirmation of problem responsibilities.
Article 13 A bank insurance institution shall establish a consumer's personal information protection mechanism, improve its internal management system, hierarchical authorization and approval and internal control measures, and implement hierarchical control over consumer's personal information throughout the process, so as to effectively protect the safety of consumer's personal information.
Article 14 A bank insurance institution shall establish a list management mechanism for cooperative institutions, formulate standards for the entry and exit of cooperative institutions for cooperative matters involving consumers' rights and interests, and strengthen the continuous management of cooperative institutions. In the cooperation agreement, the responsibilities and obligations of both parties in the protection of consumers' rights and interests should be clarified, including but not limited to information security control, service price management, service continuity, information disclosure, dispute resolution mechanism, liability for breach of contract, emergency response, etc.
Fifteenth bank insurance institutions should establish and improve the complaint handling mechanism, smooth the complaint channels, standardize the complaint handling process, strengthen the statistical analysis of complaints, constantly trace the source of rectification, and earnestly fulfill the main responsibility of complaint handling.
Article 16 Banking insurance institutions shall improve the diversified settlement mechanism of contradictions and disputes, actively negotiate with consumers to solve contradictions and disputes, and if negotiation fails, promote the settlement of contradictions and disputes through mediation, arbitration and litigation.
Where a consumer requests a mediation organization for disputes in the banking and insurance industry, the banking and insurance institution shall not refuse to participate in mediation without justifiable reasons.
Article 17 A bank insurance institution shall establish an internal training mechanism for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, provide training for employees on the protection of consumers' rights and interests, improve training efficiency and enhance employees' awareness of consumer rights and interests protection.
Article 18 A bank insurance institution shall improve the internal assessment mechanism for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, establish an internal assessment system for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, and evaluate and assess the work of relevant departments and branches.
Banks and insurance institutions should incorporate the internal assessment of consumer rights protection into the comprehensive performance appraisal system, rationally allocate weights, incorporate them into the human resource management system and the accountability system, and give full play to the role of incentives and constraints.
Article 19 A bank insurance institution shall establish a normalized and standardized internal audit mechanism for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, formulate an audit plan for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, include the protection of consumers' rights and interests in the annual audit scope, and comprehensively cover the relevant departments and tier-one branches of the institution in a five-year cycle.
Chapter III Protection of Consumers' Right to Know, Independent Choice and Right to Know
The right to fair exchange
Article 20 Banking and insurance institutions shall optimize product design, perform risk assessment and approval procedures for new products, fully assess the risks that customers may bear, and accurately assess the risk level of products.
Article 21 Banking and insurance institutions shall protect consumers' right to know, and disclose product and service information in an easy-to-understand language and in a way conducive to consumers' acceptance and understanding. Explain the technical terms of product and service information, and reveal risks in a timely, true and accurate manner.
Article 22 A bank insurance institution shall disclose to consumers in a significant way the nature of products and services, interest, income, expenses, rates, major risks, liabilities for breach of contract, exemption clauses and other key information that may affect consumers' major decisions. Loan products should clearly indicate the annualized interest rate.
Article 23 Banking and insurance institutions shall not conduct fraudulent, concealed or misleading propaganda, and shall not conduct false or misleading propaganda such as exaggerating product income or service rights and covering up product risks.
Article 24 Banking financial institutions shall, according to the nature of their business, improve the service price management system, and publicize information such as service items, service contents, service prices, etc. in prominent positions such as business premises and home pages of websites in accordance with the relevant provisions on service price management. The establishment of new charging service items or the increase of service prices shall be publicized in advance.
Twenty-fifth bank insurance institutions shall not allow third-party cooperative institutions to publicize or sell products and services to consumers in the name of bank insurance institutions at business outlets or self-operated network platforms.
Article 26 In the process of selling products or providing services, banks and insurance institutions shall guarantee consumers' right to choose independently, and the following circumstances shall not exist:
(a) compulsory bundling or tying products or services;
(two) without the consent of consumers, unilaterally open charging services to consumers;
(three) the use of business convenience to force the designation of third-party cooperative institutions to provide charging services for consumers;
(4) Inducing consumers to buy other products by improper means;
(5) Other circumstances that infringe consumers' right to choose independently.
Twenty-seventh banks and insurance institutions to provide products and services to consumers, should ensure that the risks and benefits match, reasonable pricing, accurate measurement.
When providing the same products and services, consumers with the same trading conditions or risk conditions shall not be unfairly priced.
Article 28 A bank insurance institution shall guarantee consumers' right to fair trade, and the following circumstances shall not exist:
(1) unreasonably increasing consumers' responsibilities and restricting or excluding consumers' legitimate rights in standard contracts;
(2) unreasonably reducing or exempting the obligations of this institution or the responsibilities that should be borne by harming the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in the standard contract;
(3) Deduct interest from the loan principal in advance;
(four) in addition to the products and services agreed in the agreement, in the name of paying consulting fees and commissions to third parties, charging additional fees to consumers in disguise;
(5) Restrict consumers from seeking legal relief;
(6) Other circumstances that infringe consumers' right to fair trade.
Chapter iv protection of consumers' right to property safety and claim their rights according to law
Article 29 Banking financial institutions and insurance institutions shall operate prudently, protect consumers' property safety rights, adopt effective internal control measures and monitoring means, strictly distinguish their own assets from consumers' assets, and shall not misappropriate or occupy consumers' funds.
Article 30 A banking insurance institution shall reasonably design its business processes and operational norms, identify and verify the identity of consumers in the process of handling business, and shall not open accounts for customers who forge or falsely use other people's identities.
Article 31 A banking insurance institution shall strictly distinguish between public offering and private offering asset management products, strictly examine the qualifications of investors, and shall not organize or induce multiple consumers to meet the conditions for pooling funds to purchase private offering asset management products.
Asset management product managers should strengthen the responsibility of entrusted management and fulfill their management obligations in good faith and prudence.
Article 32 An insurance company shall be diligent and conscientious, and timely and carefully examine the subject matter of insurance provided by the applicant or the relevant information of the insured after receiving the insurance request from the applicant.
An insurance company shall implement version management of the rules and standards for underwriting and claims settlement, and shall not re-examine the subject matter insured or the insured with standards different from those at the time of underwriting after the occurrence of an insurance accident.
Article 33 An insurance company shall, after receiving a request for compensation or payment of insurance benefits from the insured or beneficiary, handle it in a timely manner in accordance with laws, regulations and contractual stipulations, and shall not delay the settlement of claims or unreasonably refuse compensation.
Chapter V Protection of Consumers' Right to Education and Respect
Article 34 Banking and insurance institutions should carry out financial knowledge education and publicity, strengthen the pertinence of education and publicity, and help consumers understand financial common sense and financial risks through daily education and centralized education activities, so as to improve their financial literacy.
Thirty-fifth financial knowledge education and publicity should adhere to public welfare, and marketing and publicity should not replace financial knowledge popularization and consumer education. Banks and insurance institutions shall establish diversified channels for financial knowledge education and publicity, and set up public welfare financial knowledge popularization education zones on official websites, mobile Internet applications and business premises.
Article 36 Banking and insurance institutions should strengthen honesty education and honesty culture construction, build a long-term mechanism of honesty, cultivate industry credit awareness, and create an honest, fair and trustworthy credit environment.
Article 37 Banking and insurance institutions should continuously improve their service quality, integrate online and offline, and actively provide high-quality and convenient financial services. In the process of providing services, consumers' personal dignity and national customs should be respected, and discriminatory treatment is not allowed.
Thirty-eighth banking and insurance institutions should actively integrate into the construction of an old-age-friendly society, optimize the layout of outlets, respect the use habits of the elderly, retain and improve manual services, and constantly enrich products and services suitable for the elderly.
Thirty-ninth banks and insurance institutions should fully protect the rights of the disabled to obtain financial services fairly, speed up the barrier-free construction of network channels, and provide more detailed and humanized services. Conditional business outlets should provide barrier-free facilities and services to better meet the daily financial service needs of the disabled.
Article 40 Banking and insurance institutions should standardize their marketing behaviors. If they send marketing information to consumers through telephone calls, mass messages, online push, etc., they should provide consumers with the choice of refusing or unsubscribing. Consumers who refuse or unsubscribe may not send marketing information again in the same way.
Forty-first bank insurance institutions should standardize the collection behavior and urge debtors to pay off their debts according to the law and regulations. Strengthen the management of outsourcing collection business, and inform the debtor in an appropriate way before entrusting external institutions to collect.
Bank insurance institutions shall not have the following circumstances in the process of collecting by themselves or entrusting external institutions:
(a) using administrative organs, judicial organs and other names for collection;
(two) the use of violence, intimidation, fraud and other improper means to implement the collection;
(three) in other ways in violation of laws and regulations, contrary to public order and good customs.
Chapter VI Protection of Consumers' Right to Information Security
Forty-second banking and insurance institutions should adhere to the principles of legality, legitimacy, necessity, honesty and credibility in handling consumers' personal information, and effectively protect consumers' right to information security.
Article 43 When collecting consumers' personal information, banking and insurance institutions shall inform consumers of the purpose, method and scope of collection and use, and obtain the consent of consumers, unless otherwise stipulated by laws and regulations. If the consumer does not agree, the bank insurance institution shall not refuse to provide financial products or services that do not depend on the information of its refusal to authorize.
Bank insurance institutions shall not collect and use consumers' personal information by disguised coercion, illegal purchase and other improper means.
Article 44 Where the consent of personal information processing is sought in written form, the banking and insurance institution shall clearly express the contents that are of great interest to consumers in an eye-catching way and in clear and easy-to-understand language.
If a bank insurance institution obtains the authorization of personal information through network channels by using standard terms, it shall not set the default consent option.
Article 45 A bank insurance institution shall, on the basis of the authorization and consent of the consumer, jointly handle the personal information of the consumer with the partner, and the cooperation agreement shall stipulate the data protection responsibility, confidentiality obligation, liability for breach of contract, termination of the contract and handling provisions in case of emergency.
In the process of cooperation, bank insurance institutions should strictly control the behavior and authority of the partners, and prevent the risk of data abuse or disclosure by means of encrypted transmission, security isolation, authority control, monitoring and alarm, and de-identification.
Article 46 Banking and insurance institutions shall urge and standardize the Internet platform enterprises that cooperate with them to effectively protect consumers' personal information, and shall not transfer consumers' personal information between different platforms without the consent of consumers, unless otherwise stipulated by laws and regulations.
Article 47 Banks and insurance institutions should follow the principle of corresponding rights and responsibilities and minimum necessity in their business and information systems for processing and using personal information, set access and operation rights, implement authorization approval procedures, and realize effective monitoring and intervention on abnormal operation behaviors.
Forty-eighth banking and insurance institutions should strengthen the management of employees' behavior, and prohibit illegal inquiry, downloading, copying, storing and tampering with consumers' personal information. Employees shall not illegally handle and use consumers' personal information beyond their own duties and authority.
Chapter VII Supervision and Administration
Article 49 The China Banking Regulatory Commission and its dispatched offices shall perform their duties of supervising the protection of consumers' rights and interests according to law, and urge banks and insurance institutions to effectively protect consumers' legitimate rights and interests by adopting regulatory measures and means. Strict behavior supervision requirements, unified standards and unified discretion for similar businesses and similar subjects in business activities, crack down on chaos and behaviors that infringe on consumers' rights and interests according to law, and create a fair and orderly market environment.
Article 50 In case of major events involving consumers' rights and interests, a bank insurance institution shall promptly report to the Consumer Rights Protection Department of China Banking Regulatory Commission or its dispatched office in accordance with the principle of territorial supervision.
Major events refer to a large number of centralized complaints, mass incidents or major negative public opinions caused by banks and insurance institutions due to inadequate protection of consumers' rights and interests or infringement of consumers' rights and interests.
Article 51 All kinds of banking, insurance associations and local trade associations shall guide their member units to improve the level of consumer rights protection, properly resolve conflicts and disputes and maintain the good image of the industry through self-discipline, rights protection, coordination and publicity.
Article 52 The China Banking Regulatory Commission (hereinafter referred to as the China Banking Regulatory Commission) and its dispatched offices shall guide the establishment of a mediation organization for bank insurance disputes and supervise the effective operation of the mediation mechanism for bank insurance consumer disputes.
Bank insurance dispute mediation organizations should optimize the governance structure, establish rules and regulations, improve mediation efficiency, and solve disputes in a timely and efficient manner through online, on-site and telephone channels.
Article 53 The China Banking Regulatory Commission and its dispatched offices shall take corresponding regulatory measures according to the severity of problems existing in the protection of consumers' rights and interests in banking and insurance institutions, including but not limited to:
(1) supervisor talk;
(2) Ordering rectification within a time limit;
(3) Issuing risk warning letters and supervision opinions, etc. ;
(4) Ordering internal accountability of directors, senior managers and other directly responsible personnel.
(five) ordered to suspend some business, stop approving the start of new business;
(six) related issues in the industry or open to the public;
(seven) other measures that can be taken according to law within the scope of duties.
Article 54 Where a bank insurance institution and its employees violate the provisions of these Measures, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and its dispatched offices shall impose administrative penalties according to the Banking Supervision Law of the People's Republic of China, the People's Republic of China (PRC) Commercial Bank Law, the People's Republic of China (PRC) Insurance Law and the People's Republic of China (PRC) Consumer Protection Law. There are no provisions in laws and administrative regulations, but in violation of these measures, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and its dispatched offices shall order it to make corrections; If the circumstances are serious or overdue, the following administrative penalties shall be given according to different situations:
(1) informed criticism;
(2) warning;
(3) Impose a fine of 6,543,800 yuan.
The existence of bank insurance institutions