Comments to the NDRC, PBOC on on Further Regulating the Public Credit Information Inclusion Scope, the Punishment for Dishonest Acts and Credit Repair and Building a Long-term Mechanism for Credit Construction (Draft for Comment)

2020-08-20 | Beijing, Shanghai

On the basis of summarising and promoting the practices of various regions and departments regarding the social credit systems, this guidance further regulates and defines the scope and procedures for the inclusion and sharing of credit information, and standardises and completes the standards and procedures for identifying serious untrustworthiness lists. Also, the draft strengthens the punishment of dishonesty in accordance with laws and regulations, improves the credit restoration mechanism for dishonest behaviors, and enhances the information security and privacy protection. With a focus on strengthening the rule of trust and developing the social credit system, the draft fully reflects the important concept of "ruling the country by law" in China.

The credit evaluation and punishment system are related to the nationwide operations of all enterprises. Certain dishonest behaviors may lead to nationwide punishments. Therefore, it is recommended that the country establish a unified credit evaluation system, evaluation standards, and rewards and punishments, and they should be evaluated uniformly by the country or at least by relevant administrative agencies of provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government. It is not appropriate to involve local systems, standards and measures throughout the process. Otherwise, inconsistent regulations practices and implementation in different regions are likely to take place, which may cause unfair treatment to enterprises and the market.

In addition, we also hope that the relevant departments can respond to the following issues that companies are generally concerned about:

• Can the NDRC publicise the evaluation criteria and algorithms for the comprehensive scoring of the corporate social credit system?

• If the government downgrades a company’s rating, is it possible to notify the company in time? If there are deviations in the information collecting channels, does the company have extra time to repair credit or submit feedback before their credit downgrade?

• Will the National Development and Reform Commission's comprehensive social credit score and other "untrustworthy lists" and scores be publicised through the same channel?