Five platforms were summoned for regulatory talks, the entire chain of internet-assisted lending is tightening compliance, and the consumer finance industry is facing deep restructuring

Financial Associated Press, March 13 (Reporter Guo Zishu) The regulation of internet-assisted lending continues to intensify, with dual regulatory measures being implemented simultaneously. The Financial Regulatory Administration announced today that it recently interviewed the operating institutions of five platforms, including Fenqile, Qifu Jietiao, Niwo Dai, Yixianghua, and Xinyongfei, regarding issues related to internet-assisted lending, directly addressing core pain points such as marketing, interest fees, and debt collection. Meanwhile, regulators have recently issued documents to several consumer finance companies, requiring strict control over the scale of assisted lending and standardizing cooperation in assisted lending, leading to a continued rise in expectations for a contraction in assisted lending. Dual regulatory measures tighten compliance across the entire assisted lending chain According to regulatory disclosures, the interviews explicitly require relevant platforms to standardize marketing and publicity, clearly disclose interest fee information, strictly adhere to personal information protection regulations, conduct debt collection in accordance with the law, and establish effective complaint handling mechanisms when cooperating with financial institutions for lending. Compared to previous interviews that only targeted licensed financial institutions, this regulatory action directly focuses on assisted lending traffic platforms. A consumer finance insider revealed to the Financial Associated Press that consumer finance companies have now received specific regulatory requirements, stating that for debt collection, it is clearly defined that within M2, which means within two months of overdue, external debt collection cannot be outsourced, and the responsibility for self-operated debt collection is further reinforced. The new regulations on internet-assisted lending, "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Internet-Assisted Lending Business by Commercial Banks to Enhance the Quality and Efficiency of Financial Services," which will officially take effect on October 1, 2025, have clearly stipulated that consumer finance companies must follow suit, marking the beginning of industry compliance. To date, the regulation has entered a five-month rectification transition period. As the core funding source for assisted lending, the industry transparency of licensed consumer finance institutions continues to improve. According to incomplete statistics from the Financial Associated Press, among the 31 licensed consumer finance institutions, at least 27 have publicly disclosed their assisted lending partners and credit enhancement service providers. Assisted lending assets are bound to shrink, and the consumer finance industry will undergo deep restructuring Regarding the impact of assisted lending contraction on consumer finance business, several industry insiders have stated that the industry landscape will undergo deep restructuring, with a significant Matthew effect. "After the new assisted lending regulations, the asset side of the entire assisted lending industry will inevitably shrink, which is an irreversible trend," a senior executive from a consumer finance company revealed to the Financial Associated Press, stating that in the future, the overall comprehensive pricing control of consumer finance companies needs to be kept within 20%. Currently, the average funding cost for assisted lending in the industry is around 5%, further compressing profit margins. The aforementioned senior consumer finance insider added that the interviews with the five platforms are just the beginning, and it is expected that regulatory scrutiny will expand in the future, with compliance rectification in the industry continuing to deepen. Faced with tightening control over external channels, many consumer finance institutions are attempting to break through by building their own platforms, but cost pressures are becoming apparent. "The cost of building customer acquisition and risk control platforms is extremely high. Our company's annual technology investment alone reaches over 100 million yuan, which is simply unaffordable for small and medium-sized institutions," the executive admitted. In comparison, bank-affiliated consumer finance institutions, supported by shareholder funds and traffic, have the conditions to build their own platforms, while the transformation difficulty for non-bank small and medium-sized institutions has sharply increased, and their survival space continues to be squeezed. The industry generally believes that this contraction in assisted lending will lead to an extreme differentiation trend in the industry landscape: leading licensed institutions with strong self-operated customer acquisition, independent risk control, and self-operated debt collection capabilities will be less affected by scale control and can instead seize compliant market share through industry reshuffling; small and medium-sized institutions that overly rely on assisted lending channels and lack core risk control capabilities will face dual challenges of scale contraction and profit pressure Expert: Regulatory Governance Extends to Cooperative Institutions, Consumer Finance Needs to Break Free from Loan Assistance Dependency Su Xiaorui, a senior researcher at Suxi Zhiyan, stated in an interview with Caixin that the recent regulatory discussions with loan assistance platforms mark an important milestone in industry governance following the new loan assistance regulations. This signifies a shift in regulatory focus from restraining licensed financial institutions to extending to cooperative internet loan assistance platforms, representing a significant turn in the systematic governance of the internet loan assistance industry. "The core of the discussions directly targets financial consumer protection, which also sends a clear signal: consumer protection is not solely the responsibility of licensed institutions; loan assistance platforms must also fulfill their primary responsibilities and implement compliance requirements throughout the entire process," Su Xiaorui pointed out. She further stated that this series of regulatory measures will, on one hand, encourage licensed financial institutions within the broader consumer finance sector to return to rationality in their internet loan assistance cooperation, focusing not only on customer acquisition capabilities but also on their technological capabilities, compliance levels, and consumer protection abilities. On the other hand, considering the recent tightening of loan assistance policies under the "one company, one policy" guidance, licensed financial institutions must develop their own customer acquisition, risk control, and collection capabilities from the source to avoid excessive reliance on loan assistance services, in order to achieve healthier and more sustainable development in the medium to long term. (Caixin reporter Guo Zishu)