The Study On The Legal Protection Of Consumer Rights And Interests Of Finance

The financial crisis that spread from the United States to the global in 2008 confronted the financial regulation system of the countries with a major test and made them begin to attach great importance to protection of financial consumers. One of the reasons for this crisis was rampant financial frauds and other abuse of market actions, exposing the serious defect of financial regulatory legislation, namely ignoring protection of financial consumers under financial regulation. In this context, the United Kingdom issued Financial Services and Markets Act, the European Union the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, Japan the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, and the United States the Dodd-Frank Act. Protection of the rights and interests of financial consumers has become an important topic in the world today. Since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, it has promoted the reform of its financial system in both extent and depth. In practice, the phenomena that the rights of financial consumers are ignored or even infringed increase day by day. In recent years, China formulated and perfected laws and regulations on protection of financial consumers’rights. For instance, Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers was revised on October 25,2013, which enhanced protection of the rights and interests of consumers by detailing protection of personal information, intensifying penalties for fraud, strengthening the obligations and responsibilities of business operators, giving more play to the role of consumers’ association and specifying regulatory responsibilities of the administrative organs. In addition, China Banking Regulatory Commission issued the Guidelines on Protection of the Rights and Interests of Banking Consumers, to establish the working system, processes and measures for protection of the rights and interests of financial consumers. In general, however, protection of financial consumers in China is yet to be perfected in terms of design of legal system, supervision and remedial. In this paper, by drawing lessons from the legal systems of the European countries, the United States and other developed countries and regions regarding the rights and interests of financial consumers rights and interests as well as their experience and lessons, the author studies the legal system for protection of the rights and interests of financial consumers and the concept of financial regulation and explores establishment of a legal system for protection of rights and interests of financial consumers that suit the national situation of China under the new normal state from the level of perfecting relevant legal norms, establishing and improving the regulatory system and setting up a sound financial consumption dispute settlement mechanism, so as to provide helpful reference for establishment of a financial consumer law system and for innovation and development of the financial system.