Rectify the ills of illegal fund-raising from the source
On February 4th, the State Council released the Opinions on Further Improving the Prevention and Disposal of Illegal Fund-raising. The "Opinions" put forward the regulatory concept of "combining prevention with crackdown, cracking down early and cracking down on small ones", clarified the regulatory responsibilities for preventing and handling illegal fund-raising, based on establishing a long-term mechanism, and tried to solve the problem of illegal fund-raising flooding from the source by perfecting relevant laws and regulations. The reporter of Economic Daily interviewed relevant experts to interpret the Opinions.
Governance according to law, classification and policy
Experts believe that the Opinions fully embodies the concept of "managing illegal fund-raising according to law" and establishes the principle of classified policy.
Li Aijun, a professor at the School of Civil and Commercial Economics of China University of Political Science and Law, said that according to the requirements of the Opinions, the governance of illegal fund-raising should obey the established laws, and he also proposed that the established laws and related legislation in China should be revised in time according to the characteristics of illegal fund-raising. "At present, illegal fund-raising methods are being refurbished to avoid laws and regulations, which leads to the lag of existing laws and regulations. Perfecting the relevant legal system is an important way to cure illegal fund-raising. "
The cases of illegal fund-raising are complex, involving a wide range of aspects and strong policies. In order to effectively resolve contradictions and strive to achieve the organic unity of law enforcement and social effects, the Opinions have established the principle of strict handling according to law and classified policies.
Liu Weibo, the presiding judge of the Second Criminal Court of the Supreme People’s Court, said that according to the requirements of the Opinions, it is necessary to strictly distinguish between illegal fund-raising and legal private lending, and between criminal offences and administrative violations. If illegal fund-raising or illegal fund-raising does not constitute a crime according to law, and production and business activities can continue, it is necessary to actively help and guide enterprises to take the initiative to rectify and avoid expanding losses. At the same time, we must adhere to the criminal policy of combining leniency with severity, severely crack down on major criminal cases of illegal fund-raising in key areas, key regions and key links, and be lenient in accordance with the law if the illegally absorbed funds are mainly used for normal production and business activities and can be repaid in time.
At present, illegal fund-raising tends to spread to different regions and industries. To effectively prevent and deal with illegal fund-raising, it is necessary to strengthen leadership, participate in many parties and form a joint force. "The Opinions also emphasize the construction of a work pattern in which the division of labor is responsible for linkage and cooperation." Liu Weibo said.
Li Aijun said that at present, with the rapid spread and wide coverage of Internet technology, Internet-based illegal fund-raising has the characteristics of cross-sectoral, cross-regional, cross-industry and regional, and governance of Internet-based illegal fund-raising requires all-round cooperation.
The combination of dredging and plugging focuses on prevention
The prevention and disposal of illegal fund-raising is a long-term, complex and arduous systematic project. To effectively prevent and control the risk of illegal fund-raising, we must change our ideas, innovate our mechanisms and improve our methods. "The Opinions put forward the important concept of’ two combinations’, that is, the combination of prevention and suppression and the combination of unblocking." Liu Weibo said that the key to achieving the goal of early detection and early resolution of illegal fund-raising is prevention.
Among them, prevention means nip in the bud, and do a good job in monitoring and early warning, daily supervision, investigation and evaluation of illegal fund-raising risks; Fight, that is, fight early and fight small, and severely crack down on key areas, key areas and major vicious illegal fund-raising cases according to law; Sparse is to continuously improve the level of financial services through reform, broaden private investment and financing channels, vigorously develop inclusive finance, and effectively solve the contradiction between financial supply and demand; Blocking is to clarify the boundaries of policies and laws by improving laws and regulations, and resolutely block all kinds of illegal fund-raising and criminal activities carried out under the banner of production and operation, commodity trading, financial innovation and internet finance.
Liu Weibo believes that only by taking precautions in place, cracking down effectively, unblocking the right path, blocking evil paths, and taking multiple measures simultaneously can we get out of the strange circle of "letting chaos control death" and achieve the effect of treating both the symptoms and the root causes.
Peng Bing, a professor at Peking University Law School, said that once the risk of illegal fund-raising breaks out, it is often difficult to pay, and it is difficult for investors to recover their funds. The Opinions focus on prevention in cracking down on illegal fund-raising activities, which has strong practical significance.
The development of illegal fund-raising activities needs to rely on some channels that are convenient to the public, such as advertising, and various organizations that have obtained sales licenses to promote illegal wealth management products. Peng Bing said, "Setting up monitoring in these channels can detect illegal fund-raising activities as early as possible and nip them in the bud." The Opinions also proposes to strengthen the monitoring and inspection of advertisements.
Monitoring the capital flow is helpful for early detection of illegal fund-raising activities. "Most funds for illegal fund-raising activities need to go through financial institutions. Strengthening the monitoring of anti-money laundering by financial institutions will effectively find suspected illegal fund-raising activities in the early stage." Peng Bing said that the Opinions clarify that financial institutions should identify and report suspicious trading activities suspected of illegal fund-raising on the basis of anti-money laundering.
At the same time, the Opinions also emphasize the role of "publicity and education" in preventing and handling illegal fund-raising. "Through publicity and education for the masses, let them master certain basic knowledge and common sense of finance and law, which will not only make the masses invest more rationally, but also improve their self-protection ability, and will also play a guiding role in the whole society." Li Aijun said.
Carry out the responsibility without leaving a vacuum
Li Aijun believes that the Opinions further improve the responsibility mechanism for preventing and disposing of illegal fund-raising. For example, in the Opinions, it is clear that the provincial people’s government is the first responsible person to prevent and dispose of illegal fund-raising, and the local people’s governments at all levels should effectively implement the responsibilities of territorial management, and make detailed provisions on the scope of responsibility and the assessment methods of responsibilities of each responsible subject. This fully reflects the government’s determination to control illegal fund-raising. Only when the responsibility is clear and operational can it be truly implemented and effective, and it can ensure that there is no vacuum in the supervision and prevention of illegal fund-raising in all industries.
"In addition, the Opinions stipulate the responsibilities of relevant departments from the principle of whether supervision is linked to market access and industry management, which inhibits the current illegal fund-raising and use of the lack of supervision system to engage in illegal and criminal activities." Li Aijun said that the current illegal fund-raising with the help of Internet technology has circumvented the regulatory agencies and competent authorities. With the promulgation of the Opinions, local people’s governments at all levels will be responsible for the supervision and management of all kinds of "innovations" that evade regulatory agencies and competent institutions, which will fundamentally prevent the risks brought by all kinds of pseudo-innovations.
Liu Weibo said that while clarifying the main body of responsibility and refining the division of responsibilities, the Opinions put special emphasis on the accountability mechanism, and incorporated the prevention and disposal of illegal fund-raising into the comprehensive assessment and evaluation of leading bodies and leading cadres of people’s governments at all levels. The financial supervision department will also establish an accountability system while guiding and urging financial institutions to strengthen internal management, social propaganda, monitoring and reporting. (Reporter Chang Yanjun)