(ATF) China’s government has launched a second personal credit rating company in conjunction with leading technology firms as it seeks to tackle the nation’s growing debt pile.
Beijing-registered Pudao Credit Investigation has been approved by the State Council, China’s leading legislative body, according to local media reports.
The move marks the further acceleration of the marketisation of China’s personal credit reporting business and is seen as crucial to modernising local debt markets. It’s also seen as playing a role in social governance systems.
Credit investigation is part and parcel of China’s centralisation of personal financial and social data, as reported exclusively on ATF.
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“Personal credit investigation can be used as a supplement to the central bank’s credit investigation system, and individuals can enjoy financial services that they could not obtain before,” said Huang Yiping, a member of Pudao’s Credit Investigation Committee and Vice President of the National Development Research Institute of Peking University.
Beijing Financial Holdings is the company’s largest shareholder but tech giants JD Digital Technology, Beijing Xiaomi and Beijing Megvii Technology also own stakes. Its registered beneficial owner, Zhao Yihan, has a registered capital of 1 billion yuan.
Credit is the cornerstone of the market economy. China attaches great importance to the development of the credit investigation industry. In November the executive meeting of the State Council determined measures to promote the development and improvement of the quality of the credit reporting industry.
The next month the People’s Bank of China said it had approved the creation of Park Road Credit Reporting. Pudao has officially entered the “fast lane” of development, reports said.
Fully supportive
Beijing Financial COO Wang Lei said the company will fully support the development of Pudao Credit Reporting by leveraging its advantages in comprehensive government data aggregation, new data governance models and multiple data application scenarios. It will become a credible and authoritative nationwide, full-coverage, personal credit investigation agency, he said.
In a first of its kind for the industry, Pudao has created a credibility committee, independent of the board of directors, to strengthen social supervision and personal information protection.
It’s composed of prestigious political, business and academic figures in the industry.
Li Lihui, former president of the Bank of China and leader of the blockchain research working group of China Internet Finance Association, serves as the chairman. The committee will regularly review the independence of the institution, data compliance, the fairness and ethics of product algorithms and actively accept the supervision of the market and society.
Pudao Credit Report will provide personal credit reports, credit scores, credit profiles, anti-fraud, identity verification and other credit services, and establish an effective credit information recording and dissemination mechanism to help information subjects accumulate credit wealth.
