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The "spectre" of black credit surrounds people's lives on every corner of HCM City. Photo: N.H

Pay more, pay forever

Major Trinh Khanh Hung, Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department - HCM City Police, said that over the past time, in HCM City, there have been many complex developments related to black credit such as kidnapping and arresting illegal people, taking possession of property, intentionally causing injury, destroying property or even murder. The gangs use many methods like advertising on social networks, distributing leaflets and lending money without meeting to deal with the police, potentially causing insecurity. These forms are popular in industrial zones and schools to target workers and students.

There have been many cases of Chinese people hooking up with Vietnamese to establish mobile apps to lure victims into traps. These gangs also hire objects with a criminal record to commit acts such as splashing paint and smearing dirt to threaten to collect debts.

V.H (living in Binh Tan district) - a victim of black credit said that in August 2019, because of playing the number game, H's wife borrowed 4 billion VND from many groups of people at high interest rates. After that, these groups repeatedly threatened, causing him to sell his house to pay off his debt but still did not run out of debt. By December 2020, too scared, H's wife left the house, but black credit groups still came to the place where he rented to collect the debt. The subjects even splashed paint and stoned the house, making his wife and his children feel confused and afraid.

Another victim, T.L (living in Binh Thanh district), in tears, recounted living in fear when being constantly threatened and terrorised by the usury. Due to the need for business capital, T.L borrowed from outside with interest rates of 1.5-1.75%/day. After paying the principal and interest in full, TL asked to stop paying interest, but they disagreed and pressured her to sign a loan note and use this paper to denounce her at many agencies. "The subjects also made fake contracts to buy a house to trick me, transfer only 600 million VND, but the handwritten note recorded the amount up to 3 billion VND," TL said.

T.L also said that over the past year, she has repeatedly petitioned for help to the police station. Her life fell into a deadlock and fear.

Repel black credit

Explaining the blatant existence of black credit, lawyer Nguyen Van Duc said many victims of black credit are involved in gambling, lottery or other illegal acts. “They need money urgently, but these people cannot borrow from banks because no one lends to commit illegal acts. At that moment, the black credit came to help, but actually it was a trap to put the prey in the loop with a very simple and quick loan procedure," he said.

Duc said that pushing back and moving towards the abolition of black credit is completely possible. Recently, implementing the Prime Minister's Directive, the Ministry of Public Security has launched a series of criminal attacks in this field. The State Bank has also built many solutions with credit institutions to remove difficulties and problems in administrative procedures so people, especially the poor, the near poor, and those in need of capital, as well as rural and urban small-scale business households can access capital quickly and best. Currently, the system of credit institutions has many practical products so people can easily access capital.

OCB Bank said it has implemented a solution to go deeply to each locality to help the poor access capital. This bank set up a separate mass of mass customers to support the low-income customer segment under 7 million VND/ month; working directly with the Management Board of the Industrial Park and the Trade Union of the Industrial Park implementing the loan programme in the Industrial Park to contribute to solving urgent and necessary capital for customers.

Ban Viet Commercial Joint Stock Bank has also stepped up the use of technology to reach customers. Implementing eKYC (online customer identification) to get information, reach customers, then collect documents and lend through suitable products, Ban Viet also focuses on reducing lending procedures, even though loan conditions do not change, so borrowers feel more accessible to capital.

Standing Deputy Governor of the State Bank Dao Minh Tu also emphasised that the banking sector considers using official capital to repel black credit as an important task and the SBV has built a policy mechanism for expanding consumer credit. In particular, the State bank is discussing with the police about the future use of the residential database to accurately determine the borrower's relatives and circumstances so the bank is ready to disburse immediately, without requiring mortgages and shortening time.

However, to eliminate black credit, the opinions said that, in addition to the entry of the banking industry, police should promote credit communication so that people understand how black credit is not the same as the bank's lending process. This helps avoid the situation that many people still think that bank loans are very difficult to get and cannot be accessed, so when they need money, they look for black credit.