Warning of the explosion of black credit "disguised" as consumer loan apps

ANTD.VN - Black credit using technology, flooding the online environment, "hiding" under the guise of consumer lending apps has severely affected the operations of consumer finance companies, causing disorder and insecurity in society.

Small loan, big consequences

According to Major Nguyen Ngoc Son - Deputy Head of Department 6, Criminal Police Department, Ministry of Public Security, in the fourth year of implementing Directive No. 12/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on strengthening the prevention and fight against crimes and violations of the law related to "black credit" activities, the police force has prosecuted 89 cases, and 434 defendants involved in black credit activities.

Among them, there are many gangs or groups of subjects operating in high technology, including foreigners who set up businesses, using the cover of hiring Vietnamese people to work in independent departments, attracting borrowers to the disbursement department through payment gateways.

Through assessment, the black credit situation is emerging in 3 ways: First, the traditional method (distributing flyers, posting advertisements online) has decreased but still exists.

The second method is to hide behind pawnshops combined with high technology. And the third is to use technology, create websites and applications (apps) using names and logos similar to licensed banks and consumer finance companies.

In addition, recently there have been some groups hiding under the guise of law firms and financial service companies to buy and sell debts, then make threatening phone calls and extort property.

"Illegal credit operators are increasing their mobile activities, committing crimes in many areas, taking full advantage of technology, social networks, applications, websites... distributing leaflets and advertisements to solicit loans, especially for households, small businesses, low-income workers, workers, teenagers...", Major Nguyen Ngoc Son informed.

Bùng nổ các app vay tiêu dùng trên mạng, người dân không biết đâu là thật - giả ảnh 1

Consumer loan apps are booming online, people don't know what's real and what's fake

According to the representative of the Ministry of Public Security, loans through apps seem very small, many loans are only 1.6 - 3 million VND, the initial interest rate looks very small but the additional fees can be up to thousands of percent.

Not to mention, when participating in borrowing from apps, borrowers must mortgage personal information and phone contacts, leading to information leaks that subjects can use to threaten and collect debts in violation of the law.

When they need to borrow more, customers are lured by these subjects, using one app after another, leading to a very small loan but having to pay a very large debt.

According to Major Nguyen Ngoc Son, in the coming time, the economic situation is still difficult, especially according to the custom before Tet, the situation of black credit crimes will be active, giving rise to violations of the law related to illegal debt collection, possibly increasing serious cases.

Expanding formal credit, linking population data to eliminate black credit

According to the latest data from the State Bank of Vietnam, as of July 31, 2023, outstanding loans for living services reached VND 2.6 million billion, up 2.93% compared to the end of 2022, accounting for 21.31% of outstanding loans in the economy. Compared to the 22% increase in the whole year of 2022, the figure of 2.93% in the first 7 months of this year is too modest.

The above data shows that the consumer lending market in Vietnam still has a lot of potential for development when the demand for consumer loans of the people is very large. This is also the reason why black credit has exploded in recent times.

On the other hand, illegal credit is also severely affecting the operations of consumer finance companies. According to Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Vice President of the Vietnam Banking Association, recently, some subjects have taken advantage of the management agency's crackdown on illegal credit crimes and deliberately labeled consumer finance companies licensed by the State Bank as illegal credit organizations, so they do not pay their debts and establish debt default groups on Zalo, Facebook, etc.

This, along with the general difficulties of the economy, has led to the bad debt ratio of financial companies increasing from about 5% last year to 7-8%, with some businesses having bad debt of up to 20%.

Lawyer Nguyen The Truyen, Thien Thanh Law Firm, also said that currently, borrowers know that loan shark apps never dare to come to the debtor's house, only make threatening phone calls, which leads to the mentality of "defaulting on debt". Therefore, if we can eliminate black credit, the situation of defaulting on debt will also be limited.

To deal with the black credit situation, Major Nguyen Ngoc Son suggested that the banking industry strengthen propaganda work to help people identify websites and applications impersonating banks and consumer lending companies.

Closely coordinate with the Public Security sector to promptly implement the authentication of borrower information based on population data, to ensure that people do not falsify information to borrow credit and intentionally avoid debt repayment responsibilities.

In addition, it is necessary to soon implement preferential loans without collateral based on population data authentication; Provide the Ministry of Public Security with information on crimes related to black credit that the banking sector has discovered for handling, especially acts that affect credit activities...

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