Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Prime Minister has releaseda directive to fight loan sharks who are targeting vulnerable people.

‘Black credit’ crimes and violations negatively affect the social and economicsafety, noted the Directive 12/CT-TTg.

‘Black credit’ criminals have taken advantage of means of telecommunications inthe form of financial support businesses to offer loans with very high interestrates of between 100 and 700 percent per year in order to earn big from thosewho need cash.

Under the Directive, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked to enhancesocio-economic development security, and encourage the people to take part inbreaking down ‘black market’ violations to protect the rights and benefits ofpeople from that type of crime.

Government agencies are requested to further raise the public awareness ofcivil lending and warn people of individuals and organisations with lendingactivities and methods focusing on extremely high interest rates and illegaldebt-collecting actions.

Government agencies and officials must strictly follow the regulations and lawson capital lending and borrowing. They are forbidden from joining businesses,groups and organisations that involve in capital funding, and from helpingthose groups carry out ‘black lending’ activity.

The PM also asks the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to popularise itspolicies and regulations on bank lending and low-interest rate loan packages.The SBV must work with the Government to develop and diversify bank’s lendingpackages and products for the market.

The SBV is also assigned to develop legal, healthy financial companies andorganisations. Those units must be strong enough to cover all regions to meetlocal people’s demand of capital, which contributes to stopping operationof the so-called 'black credit'.

The SBV is also asked to maximise the amount of money raised from local people,develop new technologies that enable people to get loans and make payments onelectronic platforms, and simplify lending procedures to ease fundingaccessibility for all people and businesses.

The Prime Minister has also asked the Ministry of Planning andInvestment must work with the police to tighten the management andbusiness registration for pawn shops and inspect financial support businessesto prevent violations, and provide business information to the police forinvestigation of penal economic cases.

Provinces and centrally-run cities are asked to update their social welfarepolicies, develop new rural standards, reduce poverty, create jobs forlocal people, and prevent 'black credit' criminals and other malpractices.

The Ministry of Public Security is asked to work with other ministries,government agencies and local authorities to educate people and businessesabout ‘black credit’ and raise awareness of the legal policies and regulations.

Cities and provinces’ departments of public security must co-operate with otherlocal authorities to establish inter-sectorial working units to inspect pawnshops and financial support businesses that are suspicious of ‘black lending’so that crimes and violations are discovered as early as possible.

Local police offices and authorities must also tighten the licensing andmanagement of pawn shops and financial support businesses. For those thatviolate the law, their licences must be revoked. –VNS/VNA