Online lending faces the strongest regulation yet: New rules take effect in August, and covert fee-charging tactics are blocked.

IT Home reports on March 30 that the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the People’s Bank of China issued the “Provisions on the Explicit Disclosure of the Comprehensive Financing Cost for Personal Loan Business” (hereinafter referred to as the “Provisions”) on March 15, effective starting August 1, 2026.

According to a report by China News Weekly on March 29, many other well-known loan facilitation (assist-lending) institutions have also been summoned for talks by the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

The report notes that many online lending-related products have complex interest-rate calculation frameworks. It is difficult for ordinary users to accurately calculate costs when taking out a loan, and they often only notice something unusual during the repayment process. For example, one lending institution only advertises a monthly interest rate of 0.8%, but it does not mention that, in addition to this interest, the borrower must also pay so-called channel service fees of 2%—5%, a guarantee fee of 0.3%, and even mandatory account insurance fees that are bundled by force.

The report also says that a person in the assist-lending industry stated that, in the past, credit enhancement service fees and guarantee fees were often collected separately by cooperating institutions and were not included in publicly disclosed interest rates. For a long time, this has been a relatively covert way of charging within the industry—and this time, regulators have clearly blocked this route.

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IT Home notes that the “Provisions” contain 11 articles. Within the existing regulatory framework for information disclosure in loan business, they further specify the scope, operating methods, and process elements for disclosing personal loan interest-and-fee information. They require lenders to provide borrowers with a comprehensive financing cost explicit disclosure statement, clearly disclosing the interest-and-fee costs of personal loans, and effectively promote the implementation and effectiveness of the requirements for disclosing personal loan interest-and-fee information.