The Research On The Financial Consumers Cooling-off Period Rules

With the rapid development of the Chinese economy and the further expansion of financial globalization, the financial consumption areas, such as bank financing, insurance sales, consumption credit, have received more and more attention from the consumers. But at the same time, a great deal of financial consumption disputes quickly appears. Due to the “information feature” and “specialty” of the financial consumption areas, the financial consumers are always in the weak position in the financial consumptions, and also, the legitimate interests of the financial consumers are easier to be obstructed and infringed than the common consumers. As the result, this thesis advises to establish the cooling-off period in the financial consumption areas in order to protect the legitimate interest of the financial consumers.The “cooling-off period” of consumers, can be also called “the right of withdrawal ”or “the right of cancellation” in some countries and areas. It mainly means that after the consumers reach an agreement for a kind of products or services with the business transactor, they have the right to terminate this contract unconditionally in a period of time which the law has stipulated, in order to make the situation restore to the original state when the contract has not been signed. The full thesis is divided into four parts, which are as follows:The first part is about the analysis of the financial consumers “cooling-off period” rules’ current situation and drawbacks of legislation. It analyzes that the “hesitation period” rules stipulated by China Insurance Regulatory Commission contains are too simple; the “right of regret” stipulated in “Law on Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers” doesn’t extend to financial consumption area. As the result, at this stage, the legislation of financial consumers “cooling-off period” rules almost maintain blank in China. The second part is about the argumentation of legislation necessity of financial consumers “cooling-off period” rules. The establishment and perfection of financial consumers “cooling-off period” rules will lead to the restraint of improper induced behaviors, the remission of information asymmetry, the decrease of unreasonable consumption and financial consumption disputes. The third part is about the introduction of financial consumers “cooling-off period” rules in other countries and areas. It mainly includes the “cooling-off period” rules of financially remote service contract, life insurance contract and credit contract in EU; the “cooling-off period” ordinary rules and the rules of credit contract in Britain; the “cooling-off period” rules of financially investment consulting contract, insurance contract, installment contract in Japan; and the “cooling-off period” ordinary rules in German and its withdrawal system. The fourth part is about the legislation of the financial consumers “cooling-off period” rules in China. The legislation mode of the financial consumers “cooling-off period” rules should choose the decentralized mode. The specific legislation includes the “cooling-off period” rules in bank finance contract, credit contract and insurance contract which involve the range of application, the period of time and its calculation, the exercise manners and the relief measures. Moreover, it also includes the establishment of dispute processing database of financial consumers “cooling-off period” rules, the information disclosure system and the special authority supervision system and so on.