Research On Financial Consumer Protection Of The Banking Industry In Sichuan

The global financial crisis triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S.has brought about dramatic damages to finance systems of many nations,and heavy losses to many investors and financial consumers.After the crisis,all the countries around the world rethought profoundly and summarized the causes of the crisis,which include excessive financial innovations,insufficient supervisions of behaviors,lack of financial consumer protections,etc.In recent years,finance industry in China has been developing rapidly,manifested by constant increase of financial products and services.Meanwhile,a large number of disputes over financial consumer rights infringements has occurred and been regularly reported by social media,such as a large amount of personal savings disappeared,bank deposits turned into insurances,bank employees sold financial products on a commission basis illegally,banks charged fees against rules,bank employees sold financial products with unfair terms,etc.Moreover,some of those disputes caused collective conflicts and even brought threats to social stability.Finance is the core of economy,and the stability of finance has great influence on the development of national economic society.In China,there are a large number of financial consumers,which forms the foundation of finance industry.The confidence and stability of financial consumers also determines whether the finance industry in China can develop robustly and stably.Therefore,studying on financial consumer protection is very significant in China.In the early 1960 s,as the consumer protection campaign arose worldwide,the financial consumer protection also sprouted and had been covered in the scope of financial supervision.In late 1990 s,Mr.Tyler,the British economist,proposed “twin peek” theory,which eventually provided theoretical basis for making the financial consumer protection and prudential supervision into “the parallel two purpose” of financial supervision.Especially after the occurrence of financial crisis in 2008,strengthening the work of financial consumers protection became the common idea of the world’s major economic organizations and financial supervision bodies,and a series of laws,regulations and regulatory ordinance was introduces in an effort to protect the rights and interests of financial consumers.The author has studied both the domestic and foreign researches on financial consumer protection published in recent years,with an emphasis on theoretic frameworks,such as asymmetry of information,study of behavioral finance,social responsibility,corporate ethics,etc.The author has concluded that appropriate supports and implementations of special financial consumer protections are necessary,based on the argumentations,for example financial consumers have disadvantages of information,financial consumers have behavioral and cognitive deviations,and financial institutions have the social responsibilities.This paper reviews the framework of financial consumer protection and current situation of financial consumer rights infringements in China,and it also analyzes the manifestations and basic characteristics of financial consumer rights infringements,as well as the main ways of settling disputes.This paper shows that there are five deficiencies in the work of financial consumer protection in China in the aspects of market protection,supervision protection,self-discipline of industry,self-protection of consumers,and consumer protection legislation.The above deficiencies result in the infringements of financial consumers rights of security,fair trading,knowing,making choices,etc.Moreover,this paper demonstrates the current situation of financial consumer protection in Sichuan based on statistical analysis of financial consumers complains data.Financial consumer rights infringements often occur in China,due to factors such as deficiencies in domestic legislation of financial consumer protection,limitations on financial supervisory resources,insufficient active awareness of financial institutions,relatively low qualities of financial consumers,inability of settling disputes,inadequate supervision by self-discipline organizations,and asymmetry of financial information.From the aspects of financial institutions in terms of strengthening financial consumer protection,eliminating social conflicting,and enhancing service quality,this paper empirically analyzes 4 classic cases of financial consumer rights infringements in Sichuan,including illegal sales of financial products on a commission basis by bank employees,sales of insurance against rules by bank employees,stealing deposits by bank tellers,and provision of discriminative services by banks.For the purpose of providing more reference,this paper reviews the reform of financial supervision system in Britain,the financial supervision pattern and protocol of financial disputes settlement in the U.S.,and the legislation on financial consumer protection in Taiwan,and it also validates the effects of the work of financial consumer protection with existing cases of behavioral supervision.From the perspective of government,financial supervision department,financial institutions,independent third-party,and society,this paper eventually presents five realistic options of strengthening the work of financial consumer protection in China,which are enhancing legislation protection,enhancing behavioral supervision,hastening financial institutions’ inner strengths of financial consumer protection,building settlement mechanism for disputes without involvement of lawsuits,and enhancing education of financial consumer.