Legal Protection Of Financial Consumers' Rights And Interests

The Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis firstly happened in August，2007，triggered afinancial tsunami that later swept the whole world. Under this background, consumers inthis sector are facing more risks. Disputes between consumers and financial institutionsare emerging and generating new social conflicts. The Western country governments onceagain begin to pay attention to the protection of the rights of these consumers, andnumerous acts dealing this issue were able to pass and put into practice. In China, with thedevelopment of national economy, the traditional ways of financing can no longer meetthe demands of the public’s demands, new products and markets are taking shape.However, the concept of“Develop first, improve later” is also being represented infinancial market. The rapid growth in the number and variety of financial products andservices are not matched with relevant laws. In China, we do not actually have maturelaws to regulate this new area. The crises also forced many scholars in China to considerthe necessity to use the tool of law to regulate the market.In this area, there is much experience we can learn from the Western countries. Since1960s, these countries began to legislate on the rights of financial consumers. After thebroke out of this crisis, US further realized its significance. On Oct.22,2009, the Housepassed an act of establishing the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, making the firststep toward the reform of financial regime.For China, problems existing in the financial sector can be summarized as follows:1. on institution, no institution specifically focus on this sector.2. on legislative thoughts, the connection between financial security and financialconsumer protection has not been realized.3. On institution structure, effective institution regime is still vacant.4. On organization, monopoly has hampered the protection.5. On self-management, the procedure is far from being fair or just.6. On legal relief, no clear items of law exist.7. On legal environment, the absence of consciousness for both consumers andproviders of financial product worsened the environment. We tries to account for the concept and legal status of financial consumer in the firstplace, then taking the perspective of financial service in fund as the key point, supportedwith inquiries, discussed the legal protection in this process.This paper aims to generalizethe status quo and characteristics of financial consumer rights protection in financialservice industry. Combined with the reality in China, the author is trying to put forwardsuggestions on this subject and the application of relevant institutions, making theoreticalsupport for the whole system reform.