China Lowers Rates Charged by Consumer Finance Companies: Times

Chinese consumer finance companies in many places are required to keep the annual interest rate of their products under 24% after receiving window guidance by local banking regulators in a bid to help boost the relatively weak consumption and lower financing costs, as some companies still set the rate close to 36%, the Securities Times reported citing sources. Consumer finance companies usually use the 24% or 36% upper limit of judicial protection for private lending as the reference standard for product design, while insiders believe it is still profitable for these companies to set the rate at 24% as the median capital cost in the industry should be 6% or 7%, the newspaper said.