The People's Bank of China ('PBC') released, on 18 September 2020, Implementation Measures for the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Financial Consumers of the PBC. In particular, the implementation measures outline requirements for banks and payment institutions when handling consumer financial information. Specifically, the implementation measures note that banks and payment institutions must follow the principles of lawfulness, fairness, and necessity when handling consumer financial information, and must not collect consumer financial information that is irrelevant to the business, obtained by improper methods, or presented in a disguised form.

Moreover, the implementation measures highlight that banks and payment institutions must not refuse to provide financial products or services on the grounds that financial consumers do not agree to the processing of their financial information, unless the processing is necessary to provide financial products or services. In addition, the implementation measures outline that when collecting consumer financial information for marketing, user experience improvement, or market research, financial consumers must be offered an appropriate method to decide whether to agree to the bank or payment institution's use of their financial information for the aforementioned purposes. Furthermore, banks and payment institutions that send financial marketing information to financial consumers must provide a way to refuse to continue receiving the same.

The implementation measures will enter into force on 1 November 2020.

You can read the implementation measure, only available in Chinese, here.