City promotes prepaid cards with guarantees
A checkout counter of a supermarket in Shanghai with a sign showing the credit rating of the company's prepaid card business.
Shanghai is promoting the use and regulation of single-purpose prepaid cards during the city's Double Five Shopping Festival with the support of financial institutions.
The city has fortified the enforcement of prepaid card laws and regulations and enhance the credit level of the industry. From Saturday to June 14, it will enhance the publicity of recent progress in prepaid card management, clue more consumers in on the city's policies and regulations as well as the credit management system.
As part of the shopping festival, this is to optimize the legal environment, enhance industry credit, and help tap market consumption potential and bolster more hot sectors for consumption, according to Liu Min, deputy director of the city's commerce commission.
Single-purpose prepaid cards involve a large number of enterprises in a wide range of industries, and are closely related to people’s daily lives.
Although playing a positive role in market prosperity and promoting consumption, the prepaid card business still faces problems such as high risks of business close-down, which might leave card buyers in the lurch.
To solve this, the city set out to explore a more effective single-purpose prepaid card management system with supervision and insurance to safeguard consumers’ interests.
Financial institutions, including banks such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and insurance companies such as People's Insurance Company of China, will give guarantees for the prepaid cards covered in the system.
The system so far includes hundreds of major companies, with the industry associations giving them credit ratings from A (the best) to E on the basis of past performance, financial reports and complaints.
Signs showing the companies' credit ratings can be found at over 3,000 stores of these enterprises. Consumers can also scan a QR code to check detailed credit information before purchase.
People can also read the credit reports at http://yfk.sww.sh.gov.cn/, or via the “shssca" WeChat account.
