Hanoi (VNA) - The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)has asked credit institutions to review the implementation of its regulationson consumer loan management.

According to the SBV, credit institutions muststrictly comply with previous legal documents on civil loans and credit cardissuance, especially those on credit interest rates surcharges, calculationmethods and transparency.

This means these institutions must make publictheir lending activities, such as standardised contracts listing, providingclients with information on lending rates, as well as establishing concreteinterest rates determinants, including adjusted rates, overdue rates and otherextra charges, before finalising a loan agreement.

Regarding consumer finance companies, the SBV isworking on promulgating more in-depth regulations on uniform loan interestrates across the entire market to prevent fraudulent lending.

The SBV also ordered credit institutions totighten credit control, by timely detecting malpractice and strictly handlingviolations of consumer lending regulations to protect customers’ interests.

Previously, the SBV’s Banking Supervision Agency(BSA) announced an annual inspection of well-known lending institution VPBankFinance Company Limited’s FE Credit brand (FE Credit) in 2018, after more than100 consumer complaints were filed against the company.

In response to a written notice from the Vietnam Competitionand Consumer Rights Protection Agency, under the Ministry of Industry andTrade, regarding FE Credit’s recent negative feedback, the BSA said it willreview the lending firms’ operation.

The complaints focused primarily on malpractice inFE Credit’s customer service, such as shady loan transactions and verbalharassment towards consumers from staff working in the debt recovery departmentin 2017 and the first quarter of 2018.

The BSA also said that FE Credit’s process forconsulting and finalising consumer loans has many issues, such as automaticallyfilling contracts without customers’ agreement or too fast approval times withno guarantee of legal value.

In addition, the company does not allow consumersto correct information on their contracts even when they have detected errors,creating anxiety and affecting the financial situation of a large number ofconsumers, said the BSA.

Nonetheless, the inspection on FE Credit is aperiodic plan already announced by the SBV at the end of 2017, ensuringfinancial protection for credit institutions depositors and customers.-VNA