In order to maintain a fair and just financial market environment, effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in the banking and insurance industry, and promote high-quality and healthy development of the industry, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has formulated and issued the "Management Measures for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests of Banking and Insurance Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Management Measures"), which will come into effect on March 1, 2023.

The "Management Measures" consists of 8 chapters and 57 articles, mainly including: firstly, provisions on overall objectives, institutional scope, responsibilities and obligations, regulatory bodies, and work principles, clarifying the main responsibility of bank and insurance institutions to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and the obligation of consumers to be honest and trustworthy. The second is about the consumer rights protection system and mechanism, which requires banking and insurance institutions to incorporate consumer rights protection into corporate governance, corporate culture construction, and business development strategies, establish and improve working mechanisms such as consumer rights protection review, consumer suitability management, cooperative agency control, and internal assessment, and guide banking and insurance institutions to strengthen the construction of consumer rights protection system and mechanism, Build a comprehensive system for protecting consumer rights and interests. The third is to standardize the business behavior of banking and insurance institutions and protect the eight basic rights of consumers. This includes regulating product design, information disclosure, and sales behavior, prohibiting misleading advertising, forced bundling, and unreasonable fees, and protecting consumers' right to know, independent choice, and fair trading; Standardize customer identification, business operations, underwriting and claims management, and protect consumers' property security rights and legal claims rights; Strengthen consumer education and publicity, improve service quality, standardize marketing and collection behavior, and protect consumers' right to education and respect; Standardize the collection, use, transmission, and external cooperation of personal information, and protect consumers' information security rights. The fourth is to strengthen industry supervision and management, establish regulations on the responsibilities of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and its dispatched agencies, various banking and insurance industry associations, industry dispute mediation organizations, as well as relevant regulatory measures and penalties, strictly enforce regulatory requirements, clarify unified standards and discretion for similar businesses and entities, and crack down on consumer rights violations and behaviors in accordance with the law. The fifth is to clarify the scope of application, interpretation rights, and implementation time.

The "Management Measures" are important measures taken by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, deeply reflect the development concept of putting the people at the center, establish and improve the basic system of financial consumer protection, and strengthen and improve behavior supervision. They are the fundamental and programmatic documents formulated by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission in the field of consumer rights protection in the banking and insurance industry. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will take the introduction of the "Management Measures" as an opportunity to further supervise and urge banking and insurance institutions to implement the main responsibility of consumer protection, continuously improve the political and people-oriented nature of financial work, protect the legitimate rights and interests of financial consumers in accordance with the law, and maintain the order and stability of the financial market.

Editor in charge: Yuan Hao