BEIJING, September 22 (TMTPOST) — Alipay’s loan service provider Huabei is connecting to the credit information system of China’s central bank (the People’s Bank of China). This means Huabei users’ loan repayment records on Huabei will potentially impact their bank credits and their access to bank loans.

According to Huabei’s announcement, some users can now check their Huabei records through the credit information system upon authorization. The service will be provided for all Alipay users in the future. Institutional banks such as the Bank of Shanghai have stated that normal use of Huabei and good payment record will not result in a negative impact on access to loans from traditional financial institutions.

The authorization agreement that some Huabei users have received shows that Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance and other institutions that provide Huabei loans will be considered as the reporting bodies and included in the credit information system.

The credit information that Huabei will be reporting to the credit information system includes account opening date, loan amount, payment records, etc. Huabei will report the information to the credit information system on a monthly basis and would not report details of each transaction.  

Ant Consumer Finance was approved by China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to operate as a licensed financial institution on June 3 this year. Its Huabei is included in the Chongqing Ant Consumer Finance and needs to submit relevant credit information of its users to the credit information system just like any other licensed financial institution.

Normal use of Huabei and good repayment records will not have any negative impact on access to loans offered by banks, Huabei said, responding to concerns on the change’s impact on loan access. According to Huabei, over 99% of its users have maintained a good repayment record.

Huabei has also reminded its users to be wary of telecom fraud that concerns personal credit information. According to Huabei, it never contacts its users through phone calls on credit information issues, nor does it require users to perform money transfers. Offers that promise to delete bad repayment records are fraud, Huabei warned.