On January 11, the People’s Bank of China announced the “Administrative Measures for Credit Investigation (Draft for Comment). What impact will this new regulation have? To put it simply, “private credit data” such as Sesame Credit Score and WeChat Pay Score cannot be used to extend credit for online loans. In other words, credit scores can no longer be used to borrow money. This article is from the WeChat official account:IT Times (ID: vittimes),Reporters: Pan Shaoying, Hao Junhui, editor: Kicked sister, head picture from: Visual China

The 6th of every month is the update time of Alipay Sesame Credit Score. At this time, Xiaowei (pseudonym) is always habitual Open Alipay to see your score. “Credit is excellent.” Xiao Wei has 756 points. This means that she can ride a Haro bike, borrow a power bank, stay in a hotel, rent a car for travel without deposit…

Alibaba’s Sesame Credit Score and Tencent’s WeChat Pay Score come from China’s two largest Internet giants. When people’s lives are increasingly being trapped by these two huge systems, Data becomes an atom that constitutes credit scores. Its application tentacles also penetrate into various fields. The higher the score, the more rights and use scenarios are obtained. Some people even equate credit scores with credit reports.

However, on January 11, the People’s Bank of China announced the “Administrative Measures for Credit Investigation (Draft for Comment) (hereinafter referred to as the “Draft for Comment”), defines the concepts of “credit information” and “credit investigation business”, and clearly requires that only the central bank holding a credit investigation license Three compliance agencies, namely the Credit Center, Baixing Credit Reporting, and the newly established Pudao Credit Reporting, are responsible for credit reporting.

In this way, are “private credit data” such as Zhima Credit Score and WeChat Pay Score still useful?

Credits exemption has been popularized

On the travel website, many hotels have a “credit accommodation” logo, which means that there is no need for a deposit, that is, you can return and leave. You no longer need to wait for the hotel staff to check the room before leaving as before; on the front desk of the restaurant There are various brands of power banks, but regardless of the brand, the “deposit free” logo is affixed on the power bank cabinets; once due to the “little yellow car and thunder”, the deposit refund became a mandatory shared bicycle. Most They also adopt the credit-free deposit-free model.

“Zamma Credit Score can accurately evaluate users’ credit history and performance ability, use small electricity without collateral, eliminate users’ worries about deposits, simplify the rental process, bring many new users, and reduce risk control Cost.” Liu Bin, the public relations director of the shared power bank company, told the IT Times reporter that recently, Xiaodian has also joined the Alipay member privilege service. Alipay gold members and above users can enjoy 30 minutes of small battery charging once a week. Bao free service.

Image source: Alipay App

In 2018, the shared rental car EVCARD also opened the Sesame Credit-free deposit model in some cities. The deposit of EVCARD is not low, ranging from 1,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan according to different models, and is used as compensation for users who violate regulations and damage vehicles. Guaranteed. If the user’s Zhima credit score exceeds 650 points, he can rent it without collateral, and if he needs to borrow a high-end model, he needs a credit score of 700 or higher.

“We set the violation period (usually 20 days). If the user does not handle the violation on time, the system will deduct through Alipay Violation fees. For users who are free of deposit, Zhima Credit scores are relatively high and their credit is guaranteed. There has not been any unsuccessful withholding.” EVCARD related persons reported to IT Times The reporter said.

WeChat payment points appeared relatively late, and it was not until January 2019 that the WeChat Open Course PRO was fully opened to users in the scene for the first time. The just concluded 2021 WeChat public class PROn O, the WeChat team revealed that 1,800 services have been launched in one year, covering five categories and more than 30 scenarios. Including shared rentals, shopping and entertainment, transportation, life services, and accommodation reservations, saving users 200 billion yuan in deposits each year.

Picture source: WeChat

In addition to Alipay and WeChat, Meituan, 360 Finance, and JD.com have all deployed personal credit services. According to the data from the enterprise search, my country’s credit collection-related enterprises have shown accelerated growth since 2014. As of the beginning of 2021, there were 11,000 related enterprises in my country.

Credit points cannot be used for online loans

So, after the “Draft for Comment” is launched, will these services still be available?

Su Xiaorui, a financial technology expert, believes that when credit scores were launched, the flow giants essentially developed personal credit services as a part of their financial ecological chain. Credit services are divided into bundles of wealth management, loans, consumption and many other scenarios. Business, Improve user activity through “ratings” and strengthen user stickiness.

At the beginning of 2015, the central bank once agreed to 8 private institutions including Zhima Credit to test the personal credit reporting market. Many online lending platforms connected to Zhimafen as the basis for credit reporting. However, since then, a large number of online loan platforms relying solely on credit Thunder.

In 2017, Wan Cunzhi, Director of the Credit Bureau of the People’s Bank of China, announced that no one of the eight pilot companies qualified. Wan Cunzhi once stated that if there is no legal qualification for personal credit investigation, he cannot do personal credit investigation business, nor can he provide the so-called “credit score”.

Since then, Zhima Credit Branch has successively cut off the external lending interface. Tencent Credit Information also launched the “Tencent Credit” platform in January 2018, but it was quickly announced offline.

According to the “Draft for Comment”, the definition of “credit investigation” is to provide services for financial activities and to judge personal and corporate creditAll kinds of information on the usage status, including identity, consumption, communication, property, payment, etc., that is to say, as long as the data is used to provide financial services, the behavior involves credit investigation. In addition, there are only two legal ways to use credit investigation data, one is to apply for a credit investigation license, and the other is to inquire with a credit investigation agency.

Currently, there are 3 personal credit reporting licensees in China: the Central Bank Credit Reporting Center, Baixing Credit Reporting established in 2018, and Pudao Credit Reporting established at the end of 2020.

Relevant people explained that this means that even if Internet companies do lending business in their own systems, they cannot directly use the data and credit products deposited on the platform, and can only query these three companies.

Existing agencies have been punished for this. The administrative penalty information of the People’s Bank of China on December 30, 2020 shows that Pengyuan Credit Investigation was confiscated of 19.1755 million yuan of illegal income and fined 620,000 yuan for engaging in personal credit investigation business activities without approval. The total fines were 19,975,500 yuan, which was the largest fine ever received by credit bureaus.

Picture source: People’s Bank of China

Su Xiaorui believes that this fine is a manifestation of financial supervision “opening the front door and blocking the side door”. The credit investigation industry belongs to the financial industry and must be licensed to operate. The existing market uses “big data credit investigation” and “personal Institutions under the name “Credit Investigation” basically operate in violation of regulations. It is expected that in 2021, more market-oriented institutions will actively participate in the application for personal credit investigation licenses.

The detention-free and credit housing services will not be affected

Liu Xinhai, executive deputy director of the Credit Management Professional Committee of the China Mergers and Acquisitions Trade Union, told the IT Times reporter, “In the future, the cost of compliance with consumer data for risk control services will also increase, such as increasing personal information protection, data security, and The cost of model transparency.”

Strictly speaking, the regulatory standards have not changed. Only licensed institutions can do personal credit investigation, but it needs to be clear what is the financial scene. Liu Xinhai thinks, Financial services such as Huabei and Boraibei, such as Internet consumer loans and credit loans, cannot use Zhimafen as a single credit investigation.

In the eyes of the two experts, high-frequency scenarios such as riding a shared bicycle, staying in a hotel, and borrowing a power bank are general business transaction scenarios and will not be affected too much. “The role of traditional credit investigation is to help financial risk control. If daily life services such as cycling and borrowing power banks require official resources, this is not the original intention of credit investigation.” Su Xiaorui said.

Judging from the current service scenarios of the two major domestic giants, most of them focus on such aspects as rent-free, accommodation and shopping. Obviously, after more than five years of testing the waters, facing the clear red line of the regulatory authorities, the boundaries of Internet companies are very clear.

As of press time, Zhima Credit shows that there are more than 6000 credit services, and WeChat Pay has 2012 services, and the scenarios are basically similar.

“It’s not a credit investigation, it’s not about finance.” In the WeChat Open Class PRO on January 19, the WeChat payment sub-operator said in response to media questions that Payment points are mainly used to solve user experience and hope to break The trust barrier between users and merchants, reduce transaction costs, has nothing to do with other financial services such as Tencent’s Weiweidai.

Pure private credit bureaus may find it difficult to apply

In addition to the central bank’s credit investigation, only two personal credit investigation agency licenses have been issued in the past two years. This shows that the supervision is cautious.

Liu Xinhai told a reporter from IT Times that personal credit investigation as a market economy infrastructure is a relatively narrow area. Credit investigation agencies around the world (except China) is only more than 200: “The difficulty lies in the high regulatory compliance threshold, including personal information protection, data security, and consumer fairness and justice; strong professionalism, involving financial and Technology cross-fields; in addition, strong capital strength is also required. In fact, for credit reporting agencies, a personal credit reporting license is only an admission ticket.”

The newly entered Pudao Credit Report and Baixing Credit Report are quite similar. The equity institutions are both “state-owned + private”. The largest shareholder of Baixing Credit Information is the China Internet Finance Association, and the largest shareholder of Pudao Credit Information is Beijing Financial Holding Group. The Beijing Municipal State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission will perform the duties of investor on behalf of the municipal government. Some insiders also analyzed that it may be difficult for a purely private enterprise to apply for a license.

Picture Source: Enterprise Search

The “hard core” of credit reporting comes from data. A person from Baixing Credit Reporting told the IT Times reporter that there are two main sources of data. One is a cooperative organization that signed a personal credit reporting system agreement with Baixing Credit Reporting. They will submit credit data; on the other hand, it is the alternative data accessed by Baibank’s credit information, which is directly connected to the primary data source, including the Supreme Court, the operator, UnionPay, the Public Security Institute, etc., “Data and Central Bank Collection Credits complement each other. Baihang Credit Information has combined with more than half of consumer finance companies to achieve data sharing cooperation.”

The reporter saw in a “Personal Credit Reporting Report” (model) issued by Baixing Credit Reporting that the credit information details include Non-revolving loan information, revolving credit information, financial lease information, number of credit inquiries, etc.

In addition to Beijing Financial Holdings Group’s shareholders, there are also Internet companies such as JD.com, Megvii, and Xiaomi. “The leading Internet organizations have their own databases, and entry can form an effective data supplement to the credit market. It can drive more Internet organizations to be compliance-based, which is conducive to the healthy and sustainable development of the Internet industry, and can also protect the rights and interests of financial consumers. From the current point of view, cooperation is greater than competition.” Su Xiaorui said .

This article is from WeChat official account:IT Times (ID: vittimes)< span class="text-remarks">, reporters: Pan Shaoying, Sean Sean