Leading the industry in profitability, Zhaolian Consumer Finance is mired in complaints about collection practices and high interest rates.

“Collection calls have been made to my family and colleagues, with a tone full of intimidation and threats…” Wang Li told reporters that in 2023, due to a startup failure and a broken capital chain, he applied for a loan product from Zhaolian Consumer Finance through the loan entry of the China Merchants Bank APP, subsequently using the credit limit to maintain daily expenses. By early 2026, multiple loans taken by Wang Li were overdue, and the ensuing collection actions severely impacted his life.

Consumer-provided collection text messages

“Being overdue is not a nightmare; the collection is simply a nightmare.” Wang Li recalled that in the early stages of the overdue period, he received collection calls and text messages every day from across the country, with calls concentrated between 8 AM and 6 PM, almost non-stop. Subsequently, collectors even called his family and colleagues, “Now the whole company knows about my overdue situation, and my husband has been arguing with me about this every day.” Wang Li expressed his dissatisfaction with the collectors’ “overstepping behavior.”

Source: Black Cat Complaint Platform

Overstepping by collectors becomes a major complaint area, third-party cooperation management draws attention

The reporter reviewed publicly available information on the Black Cat Complaint Platform and found that as of March 15, 2026, Zhaolian Finance had accumulated over 29,400 complaints, with 351 new complaints in the past 30 days, most focusing on threats and violent collection harassment.

Some rights protectors have complained about Zhaolian Consumer Finance on the Black Cat Complaint Platform.

On the Black Cat Complaint Platform, many users’ feedback was highly similar to Wang Li’s experience, mentioning frequent collection calls and text messages, with some collectors leaking users’ overdue information to unrelated third parties by calling family, colleagues, and workplace phone numbers, disrupting users’ normal work and life.

Information on third-party cooperation institutions for Zhaolian Consumer Finance Co., Ltd.

The reporter learned from the information disclosed on Zhaolian Consumer Finance’s official website that the company currently collaborates with 12 collection service providers, including Sichuan Mowen Information Technology Co., Ltd.

Source: Tianyancha

Public business information and bidding announcements from Tianyancha show that the company is a domestic BPO service provider, with core business including outsourced collection services for financial institutions, having won contracts for overdue collections for credit cards and loans from several state-owned and joint-stock banks.

Profit background and business model of licensed leading institutions

Public information indicates that Zhaolian Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. is a national licensed consumer finance company approved by the National Financial Regulatory Administration, jointly initiated by China Merchants Bank and China Unicom, officially opening in March 2015, with a registered capital of 10 billion yuan and headquartered in Shenzhen.

The company’s core operating model is online pure credit small-scale consumer loans, leveraging the channel resources of its two major shareholders, acquiring customers through various paths such as the China Merchants Bank APP, providing unsecured, fully online consumer credit services to the long-tail customer groups inadequately covered by traditional bank credit services, with core products including “Haoqi Loan” and more.

Zhaolian Finance’s 2025 semi-annual financial data

According to Zhaolian Consumer Finance’s semi-annual financial data for 2025, in the first half of 2025, the company achieved an operating income of 7.899 billion yuan and a net profit of 1.504 billion yuan. As of the end of June 2025, the company’s total asset scale reached 157.722 billion yuan, with net profit consistently ranking first in the licensed consumer finance industry in China.

Interest fees close to regulatory red lines and overdue compound interest cause disputes among users

Such a company, which is at the forefront of profitability in the consumer finance industry, has faced a surge of user complaints not just regarding collection issues, but also concerning loan interest fees and overdue penalty fees.

Consumer Zhang Peng told reporters that his loan principal from Zhaolian Consumer Finance was only over 7,000 yuan, and after being overdue for a period, he was required to pay an additional 1,000 yuan in overdue interest besides the normal loan interest.

Consumer-provided loan contract

The reporter learned that Zhaolian Consumer Finance specifies in its loan contract that the overdue penalty interest rate is calculated daily, with a daily penalty interest rate of 0.0975%, and the contract does not specify an annualized interest rate.

The reporter calculated that if using the daily penalty interest rate of 0.0975%, the annualized penalty interest rate (simple interest) would be 35.59%, and the annualized rate (compound interest) would be 41.83%.

However, the amount to be repaid after overdue includes not only the penalty interest but also the principal and loan interest. Moreover, the loan contract clearly states that overdue interest is compounded daily at the penalty interest rate of 0.0975% until the loan principal and interest are fully repaid. It can be seen that the penalty interest will increase according to the time elapsed, which is what users refer to as the “snowball” effect.

Consumer-provided repayment interest calculation situation from Zhaolian Consumer Finance loan interface

The reporter reviewed the loan screenshots provided by users and found that a loan of 50,000 yuan, to be repaid in 36 installments, showed a repayment plan that required a total interest payment of 20,964.08 yuan, with the loan interface indicating an annualized interest rate (simple interest) of 23.9805%, close to the 24% regulatory standard for related interest rates. If borrowers encounter a situation similar to Zhang Peng’s, the accumulated overdue penalty interest would significantly increase the overall cost of funds for that loan.

Regulatory red lines remain clear, and industry compliance management still needs strengthening

In response to the irregularities in the loan industry, in April of last year, the National Financial Regulatory Administration issued a notice on “Strengthening the Management of Commercial Banks’ Internet Loan Assistance Business to Enhance the Quality and Efficiency of Financial Services” (referred to as the new loan assistance regulations), requiring commercial banks to strengthen post-loan collection management for internet loan assistance business and to promptly correct any violations found. In severe cases, measures such as terminating cooperation should be taken. At the same time, it requires loan assistance platforms to implement a list management system to clarify comprehensive financing costs.

The new regulations issued by the National Financial Regulatory Administration, which took effect in October 2025, explicitly stipulate that the annualized interest rate for loans from assistance platforms must be strictly controlled within 24%.

According to industry insiders, the “Several Opinions of the Supreme People’s Court on Further Strengthening Financial Trial Work” clearly states: Borrowers of financial loan contracts may request adjustments for the portion of interest, compound interest, penalty interest, liquidated damages, and other fees that significantly deviate from actual losses and exceed an annual interest rate of 24%, which should be supported to effectively reduce the financing costs of the real economy.

Source: Shenzhen Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration

On December 31, 2025, the Shenzhen Financial Regulatory Bureau released an administrative punishment information public notice stating that Zhaolian Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. was fined 500,000 yuan for improperly managing cooperative institutions and post-loan fund use. The relevant responsible person, Sheng Lian, was warned.

As early as January 25, 2022, the former CBIRC imposed a fine of 2.9 million yuan on Zhaolian Consumer Finance. The company’s specific violations included exaggerated and misleading marketing, charging service fees that did not match the quality, imprudent product pricing management, inadequate risk management of cooperative merchants, failing to report joint loan off-balance sheet risk exposures, improper collection behavior, non-standard consumer rights protection auditing, and inadequate management of consumer complaints.

A head of risk control at a state-owned bank told reporters that the profit model of consumer finance companies differs from that of commercial banks. Although both are regulated by the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the funding sources for consumer finance companies mainly come from shareholder investment and market financing, with significantly higher funding costs than commercial banks. Additionally, consumer finance companies primarily serve long-tail customer groups that traditional bank credit cannot adequately cover, with loans primarily being small, short-term, and unsecured credit products, leading to higher customer acquisition and risk control costs, and the judicial recovery process after overdue is relatively prolonged. Therefore, institutions will reserve risk cost space in their pricing.

The same official reminded that when consumers encounter issues such as illegal collection by financial institutions or interest fee disputes, they can submit complaints to regulatory authorities through the national banking and insurance consumer complaint hotline 12378 to protect their legal rights.

As of the time of reporting, Wang Li has settled all debts with Zhaolian Consumer Finance through loans from relatives and friends, but his rights protection appeal regarding the illegal collection behavior is still ongoing. Zhang Peng has also submitted a rights protection application regarding the collection rules for overdue penalty interest and comprehensive interest fees through the 12378 hotline, requesting Zhaolian Consumer Finance to provide clear compliance explanations regarding the interest fee collection standards.

(All interviewees in the text are pseudonyms)

Reporter’s Notes:

The core significance of March 15, International Consumer Rights Day, has always been more than just exposing individual cases and protecting consumer rights; it lies in promoting compliance and long-term governance in the entire consumer finance industry.

As a leading profit-making institution in the licensed consumer finance industry, the frequent complaints about overstepping collection actions and disputes over interest pricing for Zhaolian Consumer Finance are not isolated cases. They reflect significant governance shortfalls in core areas such as the full-process management of outsourced collection agencies, protection of consumers’ personal information, and compliance management of credit product interest fees.

For the consumer finance industry, which is positioned to serve underserved customers in traditional bank credit, strictly adhering to regulatory compliance and integrating consumer rights protection throughout the entire business chain is the fundamental basis for achieving healthy and sustainable development in the industry.