Overdue action

摘要

DEBT-COLLECTION videos have become a popular subgenre on Chinese clip-sharing platforms. Many feature young men deftly fielding phone calls from aggressive collectors. Some portray the abuses-hair pulling, slapping-that have come to define a business that has long gone largely unregulated in China. The result has been a Wild West for collections. Debt collectors sometimes impersonate police officers; the details of debtors' friends and family are sold so that they can be harassed. A swift rise in personal debt, though, is forcing regulators to act. Between 2015 and 2019 the stock of household debt in China rose by about $4.6tm, close to the $5.1tm accrued by Americans over a similar period before the global financial crisis of 2007-09, according to data from Rhodium Group, a consulting firm. The outstanding balance of delinquent consumer receivables could reach nearly 3.3trn yuan ($500bn) next year, up from just 1trn yuan in 2015, reckons iResearch, another consultancy.