Notice of the Beijing Office of the China Banking Regulatory Commission on Issuing the Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving the Work of Protecting the Rights and Interests of Consumers in the Banking Industry of Beijing Municipality

· Area of Law： Industrial and Commercial Management

· Level of Authority： Local Regulatory Documents

· Date issued：04-07-2016

· Effective Date：04-07-2016

· Status： Effective

· Issuing Authority： China Banking Regulatory Commission, Beijing Bureau

Notice of the Beijing Office of the China Banking Regulatory Commission on Issuing the Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving the Work of Protecting the Rights and Interests of Consumers in the Banking Industry of Beijing Municipality
Beijing branches of all state-owned commercial banks, all joint-stock commercial banks within the jurisdiction of Beijing Municipality, Bank of Beijing, Beijing Rural Commercial Bank, all village banks within the jurisdiction of Beijing Municipality, Beijing branches of all city commercial banks, Beijing Branch of Bank of Beijing, Zhongguancun Branch of Bank of Beijing, Beijing Branch of Postal Savings Bank of China, all foreign banks, trust companies, auto financing companies, and consumer finance companies within the jurisdiction of Beijing Municipality, Peony Card Center of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank Card Center of Bank of China, Credit Card Center of China Mingsheng Banking Corporation, Credit Card Center of China Everbright Bank, Credit Card Center of Hua Xia Bank, and Credit Card Center of Bank of Beijing:
The General Office of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (“CBRC”) has recently issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Rights and Interests of Consumers in the Banking Industry and Solving Current Concerns of the People (No. 25 [2016], General Office of the CBRC). In light of the actualities of Beijing Municipality, the Beijing Office of the CBRC has developed upon research the Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving the Work of Protecting the Rights and Interests of Consumers in the Banking Industry of Beijing Municipality, which is hereby issued to you, and has raised the following requirements for your conscientious implementation.
Before April 20, 2016, the banking financial institutions that have opened personal business shall, in the form of an official document, report information on the setting of special areas for product sales and the work progress of “audio and video recordings” to the Beijing Office of the CBRC; before the end of June 2016, the aforesaid institutions shall complete the work of installation and equipment of electronic monitoring systems in the special areas for product sales and realize the whole-process synchronized audio and video recordings of the sales of their own financial products and products sold on a commission basis.
April 7, 2016
Implementation Opinions on Further Strengthening and Improving the Work of Protecting the Rights and Interests of Consumers in the Banking Industry of Beijing Municipality
In order to maintain the fair and impartial financial market environment, protect the lawful rights and interests of consumers in the banking industry, promote the stable and sound development of the banking industry of Beijing Municipality, and implement the relevant requirements of the Guiding Opinions of the China Banking Regulatory Commission on Strengthening the Protection of Rights and Interests of Consumers in the Banking Industry and Solving Current Concerns of the People (No. 25 [2016], General Office of the CBRC), in light of the actualities of the banking industry in Beijing Municipality, the opinions on further strengthening and improving the work of protecting the rights and interests of consumers in the banking industry of Beijing Municipality are hereby raised as follows:
Article 1 The primary responsibilities shall be implemented. Banking financial institutions shall, based on the overall objectives of guaranteeing and promoting the economic development and construction of the Capital, further deepen their understanding of work, incorporate the concepts of protecting consumers' rights and interests into corporate governance, enterprise cultural construction, and management and development strategy, take the initiative to carry out the work of protecting the rights and interests of consumers in the banking industry, and comprehensively implement the primary responsibilities of protecting the rights and interests of consumers. The board of directors of a legal person banking financial institution shall assume the ultimate responsibility of protecting the rights and interests of consumers in the banking industry, and establish and improve the relevant resumption systems. The senior executives of a banking financial institution shall include the protection of the rights and interests of consumers into the items for discussion and establish a working committee for the protection of rights and interests of consumers in the banking industry that consists of the relevant senior executives and the primary persons in charge and coordinates the work of protecting the rights and interests of consumers in an overall manner.
Article 2 The institutional settings shall be strengthened. Bank of Beijing and Beijing Rural Commercial Bank shall establish a special committee for the protection of consumers' rights and interests under the board of directors. The board of directors of a foreign legal person bank that opens personal business may authorize its existing special committee to perform the relevant functions of protecting consumers' rights and interests. Bank of Beijing, Beijing Rural Commercial Bank, Beijing branches of state-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks, and Beijing branch of Postal Savings Bank of China shall establish full-time departments to be responsible for taking the lead in organizing, coordinating, urging, and guiding the work of protecting the rights and interests of consumers in the banking industry carried out by other departments of the aforesaid banks and branches and their subordinate business entities. The foreign banks with small scale of personal business within the jurisdiction of Beijing Municipality and Beijing branches of city commercial banks may designate special departments, specify special persons and posts, and take the lead in carrying out the work of protecting consumers' rights and interests. All institutions shall, from the perspectives of training, remuneration, and promotion, attract excellent persons with rich business experience, strong communication and coordination ability, and good psychological quality to join the work team of protection of consumers' rights and interests, and guarantee the reasonable funds for the protection of consumers' rights and interests.
Article 3 The assessment and evaluation shall be improved. The banking financial institutions shall strengthen the elaborate management of the work of protecting consumers' rights and interests, further establish a sound system for the work of protecting consumers' rights and interests, incorporate pre-examination and in-progress supervision for the protection of consumers' rights and interests, management of product and service information disclosure, financial knowledge publicity and education, service management, complaint management, internal assessment of consumers rights protection, and consumers rights protection training into the scope of work of protecting consumers' rights and interests, clearly define the division of responsibilities, and comprehensively implement the regulatory requirements. In the meantime, the system implementation effects shall be evaluated on a regular basis by means of internal assessment and internal audit of the work of protecting consumers' rights and interests. The results of annual assessment of the work of protecting consumers' rights and interests shall be incorporated into the banking financial institution's comprehensive operation and performance assessment and evaluation system and be allocated with reasonable weight, so as to increase efforts in positive motivation and negative punishment. All banking financial institutions shall, prior to January 31 of each year and in the form of an official document, notify their subordinate business entities of the results of internal assessment of the work of protecting consumers' rights and interests in the previous year and send a copy to the Beijing Office of the CBRC at the same time.
Article 4 The internal collaboration shall be intensified. All internal departments and subordinate business entities of banking financial institutions shall implement their work responsibilities according to the division of responsibilities in the protection of consumers' rights and interests. In terms of product and service access, the research and development departments shall voluntarily solicit opinions on whether there are circumstances where consumers' lawful rights and interests are infringed from functional departments of protection of consumers' rights and interests, and make corresponding adjustments. In terms of publicity and education, without violating the requirements of current systems, the finance departments shall simplify the procedure for approving funds for financial knowledge publicity and education as far as possible. In terms of complaint handling, the respondents and respondent departments shall provide active cooperation, provide the due diligence reports and the relevant background materials in a timely manner, and be responsible for the accuracy and authenticity of such reports and materials. All outlets shall establish posts for the protection of consumers' rights and interests to be responsible for implementing all work requirements for the protection of consumers' rights and interests.
Article 5 The service quality shall be improved. The banking financial institutions shall adhere to the service concept of “people first,” strengthen the professional integrity education of practitioners, and improve the professional ethics and professional quality of practitioners; actively improve consumers' experience and increase the service satisfaction; strengthen the management of business premises and prohibit any sales personnel that are not from the banking financial institutions from conducting marketing activities in any form in the business premises; promote the streamlining and standardization of service work in business premises, open more counters and windows in business peaks and consumer accumulation areas, rationally allocate resources, shorten consumers' queuing time, and improve the availability and convenience of financial services; strengthen service control by such means as customer interview, secrete inquiry by mystery men, remote monitoring and inspection, on-site inspection, and self-inspection of outlets; strengthen financial services for the elderly, the disabled, and other special consumer groups, increase input into the relevant service supporting facilities, and create appropriate financial service environment.
Article 6 The information disclosure shall be strengthened. The banking financial institutions shall strengthen the disclosure of product information and regulate product promotion activities. The product publicity and sales texts shall reflect major features of the products in a comprehensive, objective, and true manner and may not exaggerate the product yields or conceal the product risks. The product advertising and publicity activities shall strictly observe the Advertising Law and the relevant statutory and regulatory requirements of regulatory departments. The banking financial institutions shall establish product information disclosure inquiry platforms based on their websites, take down basic information of all financial products on sale and during duration, waste no time in prompting variations in risk information of financial products during duration, strictly differentiate self-products and products sold on a commission basis for inquiry and selection by consumers.
The banking financial institutions shall implement the special area management for product sales and open up special areas for the sales of self-financial products and products sold on a commission basis in the outlets. The special sales areas shall have conspicuous marks and consumers shall be prompted at a conspicuous position and in legible handwriting that “You may inquire the product you purchase through the list of products on our website. There are risks in the products and you should be careful in making investment.” The sales personnel in the special areas shall have the corresponding qualification for engaging in wealth management and business on a commission basis. The special hotline for consumer complaints of a banking financial institution shall be publicized in the special sales area for consumers to confirm the product attributes and the relevant information and whistle blow sales in violation of regulations, private sales of products, and other activities.
Article 7 The requirements for “audio and video recordings” shall be implemented. On the basis of advance “audio and video recordings” of product sales in Beijing area, the banking financial institutions shall, under the uniform deployment of the CBRC for promoting the audio and video recordings of product sales across the country in 2016, strictly implement various specific requirements, actively make adjustment, upgrading, and reconstruction, and take the lead in realizing the “audio and video recordings” of product sales in special areas so that dead corners are avoided and full coverage is achieved. All institutions shall strengthen the administration of video and audio recordings, regulate the production, storage, retrieval of video and audio recordings, and other work links by developing systems, and prevent information disclosure.
Article 8 The resolution of disputes shall be promoted. The banking financial institutions shall effectively perform the primary responsibility of handling complaints. The banking financial institutions shall, in marked positions of their business premises, publicize their special hotlines for handling complaints of consumers and the procedures for handling complaints and make great efforts to achieve the fast and proper resolution of service disputes at the place where the complaints are first filed. Where matters of disputes are complicated and both parties fail to reach consensus, the banking financial institutions shall, in a timely manner, report to the entity at the higher level for seeking guidance, actively contact the Beijing Banking Association for a third party's mediation, and avoid contradiction intensification caused by delay and hindrance in the best handling time.
The banking financial institutions shall intensify time limit management and centralized management in the handling of complaints, implement various work requirements for complaint handling of the regulatory institutions and entities at the higher level into the banking financial institutions' complaint handling systems, and specify the handling requirements and time limit requirements for such links as complaint acceptance, handling, reply, and archiving. All institutions shall, at least once every half a year, conduct a full-caliber analysis on various complaints, notify all subordinate business entities, and send a copy to the Beijing Office of the CBRC at the same time. The banking financial institutions shall pay attention to drawing lessons from the handling of complaints, identify shortcomings in a timely manner, and improve their products and services.
Article 9 The supervision and inspection shall be intensified. The Beijing Office of the CBRC shall, by means of designated external examination, internal examination, on-site inspection, and secrete inquiry, conduct supervision and inspection on the implementation of the relevant regulatory requirements for the protection of consumers' rights and interests by the banking financial institutions. For outlets to be established with the qualification for engaging in the business of wealth management product sales and the business of product sales on a commission basis, the Beijing Office of the CBRC shall, in the link of access and approval, strictly inspect the implementation of the regulatory requirements for “audio and video recordings” in special sales areas and product sales in such special sales areas. In the meantime, the proportion of knowledge on the protection of consumers' rights and interests shall be appropriately increased in the content of the qualification test for senior executives. Regulatory accountability and punishments against the banking financial institutions that violate the prudent management rules in terms of protection of consumers' rights and interests in the banking industry, management of service prices, management of account opening, management of online banking, management of employees' conduct, management of product sales, and handling of complaints and infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of consumers shall be intensified.
Article 10 The publicity and education shall be enhanced. The banking financial institutions shall make more efforts to the publicity and education of financial knowledge, intensify the organizational guarantee and logistical support, and arrange special work funds for publicity and education. The banking financial institutions shall adjust measures to local conditions, conduct multi-party collaboration, actively innovate on the publicity and education means and methods, design and prepare the relevant financial knowledge popularization materials for the financial services with general concerns of consumers and business problems reflected in a centralized manner, and increase the coverage and effectiveness of financial knowledge publicity and education by virtue of such channels as network, paper media, television, and broadcasting. The banking financial institutions shall actively participate in the work of establishing exemplary bases for the program of “Popularizing Financial Knowledge to Every Household” of the banking industry in Beijing Municipality, open up special areas in marked positions of business premises to put public welfare financial knowledge publicity materials, and carry out normalized and long-term financial knowledge popularization activities.
Village banks, card centers, and non-banking financial institutions shall be governed by these Opinions.