Study On Protection Of Rights And Interests Of Rural Financial Consumers In The Development Of Financial Inclusion

Financial inclusion emphasizes the provision of financial products and services to all sectors of society at affordable cost,especially vulnerable groups,and has become the development goal of each country's financial system.China's rural financial market is relatively backward,and the main body of rural economy is facing financing difficulties,which restricts the development of the whole rural economy.Therefore,the government is constantly promoting the development of financial inclusion in rural areas.The global financial crisis in 2008 caused by the US Subprime Mortgage Crisis highlighted the fact that the financial growth achievements without the protection of financial consumers' rights and interests would be offset.It is recognized that the financial ability of a large number of fragile and inexperienced farmers is obviously insufficient when financial inclusion's development brought the financial innovation,and the infringement of the rights and interests of rural financial consumers could be easily occurred.So the protection of financial consumers' rights and interests was proposed as an important principle of inclusive finance development.Based on the basic theory and specific practices of financial consumer protection,this paper discusses the protection of rural financial consumer rights and interests in the development of financial inclusion,not only to explores the reasons,but also to expects to provide guidance for the behavior of various subjects in the protection of the rights and interests of rural financial consumers.On the basis of summarizing the domestic and foreign research trends,firstly,this paper clarifies the relevant concepts of the rural financial consumers that mainly refer to the farmers who use financial products or receive financial services to meet the needs of production and life,and have the characteristics of financing difficulty,inadequate financial capacity and heterogeneity.In the process of financial inclusion development,protecting the rights and interests of rural financial consumers could guarantee that farmers can obtain finance products and services at reasonable price,and their interests are not damaged.Secondly,the paper summarizes the basic content and reality of the protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests in the development of financial inclusion in China.The protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests needs to be improved,which shows as blank law,weak behavior supervision,lack of attention from financial institutions and insufficient self-protection of farmers.The rights and interests of rural financial consumers include the right to access financial services,the right to self-determination and fair trading and the right to claim financial consumption which have not been fully realized.Because market,government(hierarchy)and sel-organization(community)are the powers of social governance,this paper analyses the reasons why rural financial consumers' rights and interests are damaged in the development of financial inclusion from the aspects of market failure,government failure and difficulties of farmers' self-organization.The common reasons that farmers' consumer rights and interests are easily damaged are the unequal principal status and information asymmetry between financial institutions and farmers.The development of financial inclusion promoted by the government will also have the problem of insufficient protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests.The application of Arrow's impossibility theorem shows that the government can not design a perfect rural financial inclusion system to realize the protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests.Using the multi-task and multi-stage principal-agent model,this paper illustrates the deviation of local governments' behavior in protecting rural financial consumers' rights and interests under the goal of inclusive financial policy,which leads to the failure of authentic implementation of the protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests.Farmers have limited rational characteristics,and farmers' self-organization,rural mutual fund cooperative is confronted with such problems as free-riding,insufficient supply of public goods and inconsistent interest demands brought about by the heterogeneity of members,which affect the realization of the rights and interests of rural financial consumers.On the basis of analyzing the reality of protecting the rights and interests of rural financial consumers,the article points out that the main bodies of protecting the rights and interests of rural financial consumers in financial inclusion's development are government,financial institutions and farmers themselves.The paper discusses the roles of these three main bodies and the realization of the roles in the protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests.(1)As far as the protection of the government is concerned,the paper uses game theory to explain that behavior supervision can reduce the probability of opportunistic behavior of traders and create necessary conditions for both sides of the transaction choosing long-term cooperative behavior in the financial market,in the process of realizing the protection of the rights and interests of rural financial consumers.Taking the operation of micro-credit poverty alleviation projects in Hunan Province as an example,this paper illustrates that there are deviations in the government's behavior choice,and the supervision should be improved rather than excessive participation in financial transactions.So the paper proposed the legalization as the development direction of the behavior supervision.(2)As far as the protection of financial institutions is concerned,based on embeddedness theory,this paper holds that financial institutions can realize the protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests through trust cultivation,information communication and the establishment of rights protection system.However,the cost of establishing physical network and cultivating trust relationship between financial institutions and farmers is relatively high,and the branchless-bank has been developed.According to the development experience of foreign countries,the branchless-bank is divided into two categories.One is relying on entity network.This paper illustrates the process of exerting reputation mechanism and related game to realize the protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests,and take Hunan Provincial Financial Poverty Alleviation Service Station as an example to testify.The other is relying on communication equipment and network technology,and the paper summarizes the development status and the protection effect of rural financial consumers' rights and interests.(3)As far as the self-protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests,the paper uses the survey data of farmers in Hunan Province,and proves that there is a positive relationship between the improvement of farmers' financial ability and the protection of rural financial consumers' rights and interests.Because the long-term characteristics of financial capability improvement,as the organizational mechanism for low-income vulnerable farmers to cooperate in obtaining financial services,rural mutual fund cooperative is an important form of self-protection for rural financial consumers.Using the logic theory of collective action,this paper propose that formulating reward and punishment rules by farmers,adhering to the principle of closeness and the existence of leaders,could overcome the “free-rider” behavior and organize mutual fund cooperatives to realize the protection of their rights and interests.In the process of operation of mutual fund cooperatives,we should deal with the relationship between heterogeneous members,ensure that members get the benefits matched with their efforts,and realize the financial rights and interests of members,such as the common-interest right,self-interest right and relief right.Finally,the paper puts forward policy recommendations and measures to protect the rights and interests of rural financial consumers in the development of inclusive finance,including clearly defining the government's responsibilities in the development of financial inclusion,implementing the supervision of rural financial behavior,improving financial institutions' ability and initiative of and enhancing farmers' self-protection consciousness and ability to participate in the market.