Say no to hidden fees and realize full transparency of personal loans.

By forcing financial institutions to fully disclose all interest and fees and uniformly convert them into annualized comprehensive costs, the information asymmetry in lending is eliminated to protect the rights and interests of borrowers; at the same time, it drives fair competition in the industry and promotes the transparency of credit pricing.

Have you ever had such an experience: when applying for a loan, the annualized interest rate displayed on the page is very attractive; but when signing the contract, you find that various fees such as service fee and guarantee fee come one after another, which eventually push up the actual borrowing cost. In some loan channels, this figure even rises to an annualized interest rate of 36% or higher.

Nowadays, the aforementioned chaos of non-transparent disclosure of interest and fees in the credit market is expected to be reversed. The Provisions on Explicitly Disclosing the Comprehensive Financing Cost of Personal Loan Business (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisions"), which came into effect on August 1, 2026, clearly requires that lenders, when carrying out personal loan business, shall present the explicit table of comprehensive financing cost to borrowers. Meanwhile, except for the explicitly stated cost items, lenders and their cooperative institutions shall not charge borrowers any other loan-related interest or fees.

Caijing noted that recently, a number of banks, consumer finance companies and other institutions have successively disclosed the explicit plan for the comprehensive financing cost of personal loans or promoted the implementation of system transformation and other work in accordance with the requirements of the Provisions. At the same time, six major state-owned banks including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank, as well as some national joint-stock banks such as China Merchants Bank and China CITIC Bank, collectively publicized the upper limit of the annualized comprehensive financing cost of personal loans under normal performance on July 31.

Industry insiders believe that entering the era of "one table for clear view", all interest and fees of personal loans will become "sunny" and "transparent", and the legitimate rights and interests of financial consumers will also be effectively protected.

Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China, told Caijing that the Provisions are committed to cracking down on the chaos of low-interest diversion and hidden charges in the personal consumer credit market. By forcing financial institutions to fully disclose all interest and fees and uniformly convert them into annualized comprehensive costs, the information asymmetry in lending is eliminated to protect the rights and interests of borrowers. At the same time, it also drives fair competition in the industry and promotes the transparency of credit pricing.

"One Table for Clear View": Multiple Institutions Accelerate Implementation

"After the Provisions were issued in the first half of this year, we have checked the relevant issues one by one with third-party cooperative institutions as soon as possible, and the follow-up work will mainly focus on the production of the explicit table of comprehensive financing cost and system transformation in accordance with regulatory requirements," an insider of a small and medium-sized bank told Caijing. At present, the disclosure of the explicit table has been completed, and the relevant system transformation work is nearing completion.

In March 2026, the National Administration of Financial Regulation and the People's Bank of China jointly issued the Provisions, requiring lenders to present the explicit table of comprehensive financing cost to borrowers. It clearly points out that the explicit table of comprehensive financing cost shall indicate the principal amount of the loan, and list each interest and fee item charged by the lender and its cooperative institutions, as well as the collection method, collection standard and collection subject of each item. On this basis, the annualized comprehensive financing cost borne by the borrower under the normal performance situation is calculated comprehensively.

Meanwhile, it shall list the contingent cost items and their collection standards and collection subjects under the default situations such as loan overdue or misappropriation. The collection standards of various interest and fee items borne by the borrower under the normal performance situation shall be converted into annualized levels in accordance with the requirements such as the Announcement of the People's Bank of China ([2021] No. 3).

In accordance with the definition of "lender" in the Provisions, financial institutions and local financial organizations including commercial banks, rural cooperative banks, rural credit cooperatives, auto finance companies, consumer finance companies, enterprise group finance companies, trust companies and small loan companies must implement the new regulations.

In June this year, insiders of banks and consumer finance companies told Caijing that the relevant work is being steadily promoted, focusing on the improvement of internal systems, optimization of business processes, system transformation, online and offline disclosure arrangements, and management of third-party cooperative institutions.

As the implementation of the Provisions is approaching, Caijing noted that a number of banks including Zheshang Bank, Hengfeng Bank, Taizhou Bank, Jinshang Bank, Xiamen Bank and Jilin Bank have recently released implementation announcements and successively disclosed the explicit plan for the comprehensive financing cost of personal loans.

"Explicit Table of Comprehensive Financing Cost of Personal Loan" disclosed on the official website of Xiamen Bank

Meanwhile, the six major state-owned banks, some national joint-stock banks and city commercial banks collectively publicized the upper limit of the annualized comprehensive financing cost of personal loans under normal performance on July 31.

Specifically, the upper limits set by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank are consistent. Among them, the upper limit of annualized interest rate for personal consumer loans (excluding credit card loans) is 6%; the upper limit of annualized interest rate for personal business loans (note: agricultural bank includes farmer loans) is 6%; in terms of personal housing mortgage loans, the upper limit of annualized interest rate for loans with a term of 5 years or less is 1-year LPR (Loan Prime Rate) + 0.5%, and the upper limit of annualized interest rate for loans with a term of more than 5 years is LPR for over 5 years + 0.5%.

The upper limits set by China Merchants Bank, China CITIC Bank and other institutions are also consistent, and the upper limit of interest rate for cooperative personal internet loans is added compared with large state-owned banks.

Among them, the upper limit of annualized interest rate for personal consumer loans (excluding credit card loans and cooperative personal internet loans) is 12%; the upper limit of annualized interest rate for personal business loans (excluding cooperative personal internet loans) is 12%; in terms of personal housing mortgage loans, the annualized interest rate for loans with a term of 5 years or less shall not exceed 1-year LPR + 0.5%, and the annualized interest rate for loans with a term of more than 5 years shall not exceed LPR for over 5 years + 0.5%; the upper limit of annualized interest rate for cooperative personal internet loans is 24%.

In addition, Jilin Bank, Jinshang Bank and other institutions also simultaneously publicized the upper limit of the comprehensive financing cost of personal loans (under normal performance, the comprehensive financing cost of the former does not exceed 18%, and the upper limit of the comprehensive financing cost of the latter is 4 times the 1-year LPR at the time of contract signing, both of which are annualized interest rates).

Consumer finance companies are also steadily promoting the implementation of relevant work. Not long ago, on June 23, China Post Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. disclosed on its official website that it has presented the explicit table of comprehensive financing cost to borrowers when carrying out personal loan business in accordance with the requirements of the new regulations, and confirmed it through on-site signing, mandatory online reading and other methods. On July 31, Ant Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. also announced the public plan for explicitly disclosing the comprehensive financing cost of personal loans on its official website.

"Separation of New and Old Businesses": Upgrade of Experience While Remaining Cautious

In addition to banks and consumer finance companies, some fintech platforms participating in marketing and customer acquisition, guarantee and credit enhancement and other links have also promoted the implementation of adjustments to cooperation agreements, fee display and business processes.

"We have completed all the work with cooperative financial institutions before August 1, and the relevant information disclosure will be uniformly completed by licensed financial institutions," an insider of a fintech platform told Caijing.

Previously, the Provisions reserved a preparation period of about five months and adopted the principle of "separation of new and old businesses", that is, new businesses are strictly implemented in accordance with the new regulations, and existing businesses are not affected. For institutions whose relevant work has not been fully implemented at present, what are the main difficulties?

"For example, in the case of loan assistance business, the fees corresponding to the third-party platforms are different in the calculation and caliber of comprehensive financing cost, which leads to a long time needed for adjustment and sorting in the early stage," a person familiar with the situation told Caijing. The calculation ability of institutions' comprehensive financing cost is one of the key concerns of the regulatory authorities.

Lou Feipeng believes that in the implementation process, a large number of small and medium-sized consumer finance companies and local small loan companies that carry out loan assistance business are under great pressure. "Such institutions have many cooperative entities, high difficulty in system transformation and third-party fee coordination, more workload in interest and fee collection and process rectification, and more prominent compliance challenges."

Regarding the new changes after this adjustment, people from financial institutions and fintech platforms revealed that "borrowers may not feel the difference directly in the marketing display, but there will be obvious differences after entering the loan process compared with before. Overall, the credit market will be more transparent, and the borrower experience will also be optimized and upgraded."

Lou Feipeng reminded that for borrowers, when applying for a loan, do not only look at the nominal interest rate in the publicity, but focus on checking the annualized comprehensive financing cost under normal performance in the explicit table, and see all the fee items such as interest and guarantee fee clearly. At the same time, the Provisions explicitly prohibit the collection of off-statement fees, and borrowers need to be alert to additional private charges offline or by third parties. Furthermore, carefully read the contingent costs such as overdue penalty interest and prepayment liquidated damages, and rationally assess the debt pressure.

(Author Cai Bingyin is an intern of Caijing, and Zhang Yingxin is a reporter of Caijing)

This article is from the WeChat official account "Caijing May Flower" (ID: Caijing-MayFlower), authors: Cai Bingyin, Zhang Yingxin, editor: Zhang Yingxin, authorized by 36Kr for release.