Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd.'s credit card division has been hit with a 4.2 million yuan fine, its third penalty in three years for credit card violations. On August 3, the Shanghai bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued the penalty, citing ten breaches covering the full credit card business chain, from card issuance and credit approval to transaction monitoring and outsourced debt collection. Four former managers were also warned and fined 50,000 yuan each.
The latest fine exposes systemic compliance shortcomings in Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd.'s credit card operations, including lax credit checks, poor oversight of large consumer installment credit, weak monitoring of abnormal transactions, and mismanagement of outsourced collection agencies. Collection-related violations accounted for four of the ten charges, making it a key focus of the regulator's action. The bank has not yet responded to requests for comment on remediation efforts.
Financial data shows Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd.'s credit card business is in an adjustment cycle focused on "shrinking volume while improving quality." In 2025, total transaction volume fell 7.62% year-on-year to 1.74 trillion yuan, while the outstanding credit card loan balance dropped 10.97% to 330.85 billion yuan, a decline of 40.77 billion yuan from the end of 2024. The bank has stated this is a deliberate strategy to reduce high-risk exposure.
Asset quality has improved but remains under pressure. The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio for credit cards fell to 3.34% by the end of 2025, down from a peak of 4.01% in 2022. However, this rate is still high compared to peers in the joint-stock bank sector. The bank reported that new non-performing assets fell 12.98% year-on-year in 2025, while average monthly overdue amounts dropped 18.25%.
The fine highlights a core challenge: balancing compliance in debt collection with the need to dispose of bad assets. Traditional collection performance metrics focused on recoveries can lead to misconduct by outsourced agencies, while tighter controls may slow recovery. The bank must also refine its credit approval models for high-margin products like large consumer and cash installments, where the regulator identified management issues.
Consumer complaints remain a major issue, with credit card business accounting for 78.33% of the bank's 196,377 total complaints in 2025. This is a slight increase in share from 77.72% in 2024, even though the absolute number of credit card complaints fell 12.03% year-on-year. Complaints on the third-party platform Black Cat exceed 20,000, with core issues including harassment of third parties, verbal threats, and aggressive collection practices by outsourced agencies.
Fee disclosure problems are also widespread. One consumer reported being charged an annual fee of 900 yuan for eight consecutive years without proper notification, totaling 7,200 yuan. Another said they were misled by a salesperson about fee waiver conditions, leading to a dispute over five years of charges. With new regulations on transparent cost disclosure taking effect on August 1, the bank faces stricter requirements on fee transparency and customer consent.
Industry analysts note that Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd.'s recurring fines, shrinking scale, and high complaint levels reflect legacy issues from an era of rapid, unchecked growth. The bank must establish long-term compliance and consumer protection mechanisms to balance business development, risk control, and customer rights, moving toward a model that prioritizes quality over quantity.
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