FinTech, Household Finance and Financial Consumer Protection: Opportunities, Challenges and Countermeasures

Financial consumers are the main participants in the financial market and the main driving force for the healthy, orderly and sustainable development of the financial industry. Whether it is a one-person household or a multi-person household, financial behaviors and decisions are actually undertaken by individual financial consumers. Therefore, strengthening of financial consumers protection is an important means to boost household financial investment confidence, enhance household financial risk management capabilities, and allow households to fully enjoy the benefits of financial development. In order to protect the legitimate rights of financial consumers, regulate the behaviors of financial institutions in providing financial products, maintain a fair and just market environment, and promote the healthy and stable development of the financial market, The Chinese government has successively issued a series of guidelines and management measures, including Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening Financial Consumers Protection, Implementation Measures of the People’s Bank of China on Financial Consumers Protection, and Measures for the Administration of Consumer Protection in Banking and Insurance Institutions. In addition, local governments of China have also taken the lead in formulating local financial consumer protection guidelines based on their own actual conditions, basically establishing a financial consumer protection policy system that is in line with China’s national conditions and covers a wide range of areas.