at the beginning of the new year, the marketization of credit card interest rates has gone further.

It was learned from the banking industry that the central bank recently issued the Notice of the People's Bank of China on Promoting the Market-oriented Reform of Credit Card Overdraft Interest Rate. Since January 1, 221, the credit card overdraft interest rate has been determined by the card issuer and the cardholder through independent consultation, and the upper and lower limit management of credit card overdraft interest rate has been abolished (that is, the upper limit is five ten thousandths of the daily interest rate and the lower limit is .7 times of the daily interest rate).

it is worth mentioning that in August last year, the upper limit of the protection of private lending interest rate was put on the ground, and the ensuing market discussion also included discussions on interest rate adjustment of licensed financial institutions. At that time, some experts pointed out that after the reduction of private lending rates, the interest rates of licensed financial institutions will also face great downward pressure, and the reduction of credit card interest rates will drive down the pricing of the entire licensed lending institution system.

Cancel the upper and lower limit interval management of credit card overdraft interest rate

As early as April 15, 216, the central bank issued the Notice on Matters Related to Credit Card Business, canceled the previously unified standard of credit card overdraft interest rate, and implemented the upper and lower limit interval management of overdraft interest rate, with the upper limit being five ten thousandths of the daily interest rate and the lower limit being .7 times of the daily interest rate. This notice has been officially implemented since January 1, 217. At that time, the relevant person in charge of the central bank said that setting the upper and lower limits of credit card interest rates and fully implementing market pricing when the time is ripe will help card issuers accumulate pricing data and experience during the transition period.

after a lapse of four years, at the beginning of 221, the central bank issued a document to cancel the upper and lower limit interval management of credit card overdraft interest rate.

at the same time, the central bank requires that card issuers should fully disclose the credit card overdraft interest rate and update it in time through the official website of the institution, and should indicate the credit card overdraft interest rate and interest settlement method in a prominent way in the credit card agreement to ensure that cardholders fully know and confirm their acceptance. When disclosing the credit card overdraft interest rate, the annualized interest rate should be displayed in an obvious way, not just the daily interest rate and the daily repayment amount.

Su Xiaorui, a senior researcher at Sack Research Institute, said in an interview with national business daily that the credit card overdraft interest rate is determined by the card issuer and the cardholder through independent consultation, which is an important manifestation of promoting the interest rate marketization reform, and it is in the same spirit as the Law of the People's Republic of China on Commercial Banks (Revised Draft) issued by the People's Bank of China on October 16 last year. At that time, it was stated in the document that "commercial banks can determine deposit and loan interest rates through independent consultation with customers.

Su Xiaorui told reporters that deepening the reform of market quotation interest rate is an important work goal of the financial industry. In recent years, with the continuous progress of preventing and resolving major risks, problems such as "shadow banking" have been effectively solved. Opening the loan interest rate of commercial banks in a timely manner can not only improve the management efficiency of banks and improve the loan quality of commercial banks, but also fill the demand gap caused by the clean-up of "shadow banking", which is the concrete embodiment of "opening the main door" after "blocking the partial door". The liberalization of the credit card interest rate is precisely under the background of the current economy "internal circulation is the mainstay and external circulation is the empowerment". Cutting into the demand-side reform through consumption upgrading can stimulate more vitality of the consumer market.

will the credit card interest rate drop?

It is worth mentioning that in August last year, the Supreme Court adjusted the upper limit of interest rate protection for private lending, from which the former "two lines and three districts based on 24% and 36%" was adjusted to "four times the one-year LPR", and the upper limit of interest rate protection for private lending was greatly reduced, which also triggered market discussions on interest rate adjustment for licensed financial institutions.

The reporter noted that most of the current bank credit card overdraft interest rates are calculated at five ten thousandths of the daily interest rate, that is, the annualized interest rate is 18.25%, which exceeds the current standard of 15.4% for the upper limit of private lending interest rate protection.

Xue Hongyan, vice president of Suning Financial Research Institute, previously wrote that the adjusted private lending rate has been significantly lower than the interest rate pricing level of many licensed financial institutions. It is not difficult to predict that after the private lending rate is lowered, the interest rate of licensed financial institutions will also face great downward pressure. For example, the upper limit of credit card installment interest rate with a daily interest rate of five ten thousandths will be lowered.

He believes that the installment interest rate of credit cards is the pricing benchmark of many consumer finance companies, small loan companies and Internet loan products, and the downward adjustment of the installment interest rate of credit cards will also drive down the pricing of the entire licensed lending institution system.

In Su Xiaorui's view, although interest rate marketization is the general direction and trend in the future, it is undeniable that there are still many disputes in the industry about whether there is judicial conflict in interest rate marketization. According to the observation of loan dispute cases since August last year, there are some cases of "different judgments in the same case", which is not conducive to the pricing management of commercial banks. How to build a "multi-level, wide coverage and different" financial supply system through interest rate marketization has a long way to go. It is suggested that the boundary between financial regulation and judicial power should be clarified from the top-level system, and the central bank should improve major laws and regulations in the financial industry.

institutional forecast: the balance of credit card loans will be 23-34 trillion yuan in 25

In recent years, with the upgrading of consumption and the vigorous promotion of banking retail strategy, China's credit cards have experienced a wave of golden age, and both the number of cards issued and the transaction volume have maintained rapid growth.

Choice data shows that at the end of September 22, the number of credit cards issued in China increased from 142 million at the end of 28 to 766 million, an increase of about 44%; The total credit of credit cards increased from .98 trillion at the end of 28 to 18.59 trillion. The average number of cards held is .55, and the average credit line of each card is 24,3 yuan.

according to the industry research report of TF Securities, from the perspective of per capita credit card holding capacity, the per capita credit card holding capacity in China is low at present. At the end of 218, there were 3.37 credit cards per capita in the United States, more than 2 cards per capita in South Korea, Japan and Canada, and the number of cards per capita in China was only one seventh of that in the United States, which has broad prospects for future promotion.

according to the above research report, after more than ten years of rapid development, the balance of domestic credit card loans has rapidly increased from .16 trillion yuan at the end of 28 to 7.59 trillion yuan at the end of 219, which can be described as the golden decade of credit card business. With the change of Chinese residents' consumption consciousness and the improvement of urbanization rate, the demand for consumer credit is expected to grow steadily in the future, and the credit card industry will enter a stage of steady development. It is predicted that there will be two credit cards per capita around 25, when the domestic credit card data may exceed 2.5 billion, and the credit card loan balance is expected to be 23-34 trillion yuan, which is still 2-3 times the growth space compared with 7.59 trillion yuan at the end of 219.