In the past, China strictly controlled interest rates, and officially launched the interest rate marketization in China on 1993, with the aim of further rationalizing the relationship among deposit interest rate, loan interest rate and securities interest rate. Gradually form a market interest rate system based on the central bank interest rate.
The process of interest rate marketization in China follows the principle of "foreign currency first, local currency later; Loan first, then deposit; The general idea of "long-term, large-sum, short-term and small-sum" can be roughly divided into three stages: in the first stage, the money market interest rate changed from 1993 to 1999, and the loan interest rate began to rise. In the second stage, the loan interest rate was completely liberalized from 1999 to 20 13, and the deposit interest rate began to rise; The central bank began to steadily expand the floating range of deposit and loan interest rates, and finally in June 2004, 5438+ 10, the central bank completely liberalized the upper limit of RMB loan interest rate of financial institutions; July 20 13, the loan interest rate control of financial institutions was fully liberalized, and the loan interest rate was fully marketized. In the third stage, the deposit interest rate has been completely liberalized since 20 14. 20 1 1.2 times the benchmark interest rate, and the upper limit of the floating range of deposit interest rate for 20 15 years is adjusted to 1.3 times and 1.5 times. At this point, China's interest rate marketization process is basically completed in form.
However, after the marketization of deposit interest rate and loan interest rate, there is still a dead end in the marketization of interest rate, that is, the overdraft interest rate of credit card is still limited. 1999 "bank card business management measures" clearly stipulates that "credit card overdraft will be compounded monthly, and the overdraft interest rate will be five ten thousandths of the daily interest rate". The Notice of the People's Bank of China on Matters Related to Credit Card Business issued on 20 17 clearly implements the interval management of the upper and lower limit of credit card overdraft interest rate, stipulating that "the upper limit of overdraft interest rate is five ten thousandths of the daily interest rate, and the lower limit of overdraft interest rate is 0.7 times of the daily interest rate". This time, the central bank issued the Notice of the People's Bank of China on Promoting the Market-oriented Reform of Credit Card Overdraft Interest Rate. Since 200211,the credit card overdraft interest rate is determined by the card issuer and the cardholder through independent negotiation, and the upper and lower limit management of the credit card overdraft interest rate is cancelled. This marks the complete marketization of China's interest rate factor market.
However, while the credit card overdraft interest rate is marketized, it faces a huge problem, that is, how to implement the overdraft interest rate that has been formed before? Whether to continue to implement the previous interest rate level or to implement the agreed interest rate of re-signing the interest rate now. This is a problem for 700 million credit card users and a test for all card-issuing banks.
The second big question is whether the cancellation of the upper and lower limit management of credit card overdraft interest rate will really lead to the sinking trend of credit card overdraft interest rate?
After years of development, China's credit card market has formed a very large stock scale. According to the statistics of the central bank, by the end of the third quarter of 2020, the number of bank cards in use nationwide was 8.798 billion, of which 766 million were credit cards and debit cards. More importantly, by the end of the third quarter of 2020, the total outstanding credit of credit cards overdue for half a year was 90.663 billion yuan, up 6. 13% from the previous month, accounting for 1. 17% of the credit card balance.
The introduction of this policy means that the upper and lower limit of overdraft interest rate will be cancelled for more than 700 million credit cards in China, and the total outstanding credit of credit cards overdue for half a year will face the risk and possibility of repricing.
Many people think that canceling the upper and lower limit management of credit card overdraft interest rate will help banks to lower the credit card overdraft interest rate and guide the credit card overdraft interest rate to move down with high probability. At the same time, due to the increasing space for price competition, banks can make differentiated pricing for different customer groups, which may bring better interest rate concessions to customers. The reality may be just the opposite. Credit cards and low-interest consumer loans are not a competitive scene in themselves. The credit card itself holds the advantages of users and scenarios, which is the competition for sub-optimal customers of consumer credit, while consumer credit is the competition for high-quality customers, which determines that credit card overdraft customers are more sticky. At the same time, due to over-reliance on credit card overdraft consumption, they lack flexibility and sensitivity to credit card overdraft interest rates, and are only sensitive to credit card scale, which may lead to a further increase in credit card overdraft interest rates.
In reality, the occurrence of card raising, overdraft consumption and cash withdrawal is undoubtedly the result of insensitivity to the overdraft interest rate of credit cards, and the existence of a large number of credit cards in stages shows that it is impossible for bank credit cards to cut interest rates further. This is not only determined by customer groups, but also by the problems and functions of bank credit cards. This is a very big contradiction and a very cruel social reality.
From 2002 to 20 18, China's bank card market experienced a high-speed development stage, with the compound annual growth rate of transaction volume and transaction number in the bank card market above 35%. But at the same time, we have also experienced three major changes, each of which is a suppression of excessive overdraft behavior.
The first change is that the management of the overall credit card limit was strengthened on 20 1 1, but it was not really standardized until these two years. At present, the standardization of credit card with one person and multiple cards is the result of this policy. Article 15 of CBRC 20 1 1 Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Credit Card Business of Commercial Banks clearly stipulates that card-issuing banks should strengthen the overall credit line management of credit cards, and set the upper limit of the total credit line through the combined credit lines of multiple credit card accounts, installment payment, supplementary cards and cash withdrawal under the cardholder's name. However, in reality, there are still a large number of cases where one person has multiple cards and exceeds the credit limit. On May 28th, 20 19, the monthly salary of paralegals in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province was only 3,000 yuan, but there were 14 credit cards in their names, with a credit line of over 770,000 yuan and a total credit card debt of 878,000 yuan.
The second bank credit card exchange: strictly manage the cashing behavior of credit cards, especially strictly limit the use of cards to raise cards. In 20 17, China Banking Regulatory Commission issued the Notice of the General Office of China Banking Regulatory Commission on Strengthening the Risk Management of Credit Card Advance Cash (Yin Jian Fa [2065438+07] No.49), the most important one of which is to adjust the repayment policy of credit card advance cash and strictly control it. The cost of raising a card with a card is very high. In fact, there is an annualized withdrawal cost of nearly 18%, and the withdrawal through the withdrawal service agency requires a one-time payment of 1% to 2%. If the annual cash withdrawal service is operated once a month, the service fee will reach 12-24%.
The third bank credit card change, 201910/8, China unionpay issued the notice on special rectification of illegal credit card repayment of acquirers, requiring acquirers to comprehensively investigate whether there is illegal credit card repayment business from the aspects of outsourcing service agency cooperation, merchant management and transaction monitoring, and immediately shut down the illegal credit card repayment business. By the end of 20 17, the domestic credit card balance compensation market was about 32.3 billion yuan, and the credit card compensation cost was much higher than the interest rate cost of overdraft.
As can be seen from the above, credit card overdraft interest rate is not the most important way for banks to compete for credit cards, and credit card overdraft customers are not sensitive to the level of credit card overdraft interest rate. It is difficult to guess whether the credit card overdraft interest rate will rise or even rise sharply if the upper limit of credit card overdraft interest rate is cancelled.
The third problem is how to solve the contradiction between credit card overdraft interest rate and usury interest rate by canceling the upper and lower limit management of credit card overdraft interest rate.
Many people mistakenly think that the funds obtained from credit cards are interest-free, and even some banks use zero interest as the propaganda slogan of credit card installment, but in fact, the funds obtained from bank credit cards are not only high in interest but also very high.
Take credit card microfinance as an example. Some people think that they foolishly handle small loans without the interest like overdraft shopping, but the interest rate of such small loans is very high. General banks will have an annual interest rate of 13- 18%, some banks even reach 24%, and some banks' credit cards have an annual interest rate of more than 100%.
From the perspective of credit card installment, many bank credit cards will advise the holder to repay by installment, and some even explicitly tell you that there is no interest. Are you really not interested? If I believe you, I will be fooled. Although the bank does not charge interest, it does have a handling fee. The fees charged by some banks are converted into interest rates of 15%- 18%.
Even if the current policy stipulates that "the upper limit of overdraft interest rate is five ten thousandths of the daily interest rate and the lower limit of overdraft interest rate is 0.7 times of five ten thousandths of the daily interest rate", the upper limit of overdraft interest rate has reached 18% and the lower limit has reached 12.6%, which is relatively high according to the current market pricing level. Even if the current interest rate level remains stable, there are still serious policy obstacles: the contradiction between bank credit card overdraft interest rate and usury standard.
In the past, China's usury standards were based on 24% and 36%, especially the interest rate of 24% was protected by law and was considered as a sign of usury. Therefore, the maximum loan interest rate of financial institutions and the upper limit of penalty interest in loans overdue have always been based on 24%. In August, 2020, the Supreme People's Court revised the Provisions on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Private Lending Cases, and set the upper limit of judicial protection of private lending interest rate at four times of 1 year loan quotation rate (LPR). It is believed that laws and regulations have greatly reduced the upper limit of usury, thus further reducing the cost of private lending. At the same time, the interest rates of financial institutions, including the upper limit of credit card overdraft interest rate 18%, are facing the embarrassment of which interest rate to implement.
According to a number of media reports, in September 2020, in a financial loan dispute case, Ping An Bank's request to charge overdue borrowers a penalty interest of 24% was rejected by the court, and the court finally decided to charge a penalty interest at 4 times LPR.
Although "People's Republic of China (PRC) Commercial Bank Law (Revised Draft)" began to solicit opinions from the public in June, 5438 +2020 10, it clearly stipulated the deposit and loan interest rates of commercial banks: according to the relevant regulations of the People's Bank of China, commercial banks can independently negotiate with customers to determine the deposit and loan interest rates.
Although the upper limit of judicial protection of the interest rate of private lending in the Supreme Law is set at four times of the quoted interest rate (LPR) of 1 year, which clearly refers to "private lending" rather than "financial institutions", in reality, the general judicial institutions will define the upper limit standard of interest rate of financial institutions with reference to the upper limit standard of private lending. This has led to a very embarrassing situation in a large number of business regulations and handling methods of financial institutions. On June165438+1October 12, the Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court issued a message saying that the second-instance judgment of the court held that the interest, compound interest and overdue interest agreed in the financial loan contract in this case were adjusted by four times the one-year loan market listing rate (LPR), which was an applicable law.
This time, the central bank issued a notice that since 200211,the credit card overdraft interest rate will be determined by the card issuer and the cardholder through independent negotiation, and the upper and lower limit management of the credit card overdraft interest rate will be cancelled. This also means that the credit card overdraft interest rate will not only break through the LPR of 4 times, but also break through the boundary of 24%.
The loan interest rate and credit card overdraft interest rate of licensed financial institutions are not limited to 4 times LPR, and can be negotiated independently with customers. Although it embodies the principle of interest rate marketization, it still faces three puzzles:
Qing Yu: The loan interest rate of licensed financial institutions is not limited to 4 times LPR, which will inevitably lead to the loan interest rate of licensed financial institutions being higher than that of non-licensed institutions, thus making people feel that financial institutions are legal usury institutions, which is in great conflict with the concept of public financial institutions undertaking inclusive finance and serving the public.
Li Yu: It makes sense that the loan interest rate of licensed financial institutions is not limited to 4 times LPR. The risk of private lending is much higher than that of licensed financial institutions, but the interest rate obtained is lower than that of licensed financial institutions. This violates the economic principle of treating risks and benefits.
Legally, the loan interest rate of licensed financial institutions is not limited to 4 times LPR, which will lead to confusion in law enforcement. Different institutions apply different laws, which leads to different law enforcement standards.
There is never a shortcut to learning, and you can reach the top step by step. The following is a complete book I carefully recommend to you, hoping to h