Xidian University, which is located in Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, is seen in this undated photo. [Photo: CNR.cn]
Nearly 10,000 students in Xidian University in northwest China's Shaanxi Province recently found each of them has registered a credit card unwittingly, China National Radio reports.
The self-proclaimed financial chief of Xidian University admitted that the massive credit card registration case was planned by the university in a local Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) branch.
The "financial chief" confessed the move was in response to ICBC's capital support on Xidian's campus expansion project, claiming the massive registration case as win-win model in the alleged cooperation. Therefore, he argued, "it is reasonable to return the bank by registering a certain number of credit cards."
However, in China, credit card registration requires application, detailed private information and the signatures of the applicants. Then how did the bank make these credit cards legitimate without students' signatures?
Two leaders in charge of credit card service of the ICBC branch recalled their "cooperation" with Xi'dian. They said the collective registration was charged by the university, indicating that the signatures were also "handled" by Xidian.
Besides, an agreement was signed before card registration, which is based on the "goodwill" from the university and the bank, according to the ICBC branch.
In spite that two leaders of Xidian, including the above-mentioned "financial chief", said Wednesday they would apologize to all the students involved in the credit-card storm, they did not show any regrets on stealing the students' private information.
The "financial chief" considered the incident as "low cost and zero risk" and said they intended to eliminate the complicated procedure for the students and the bank would therefore be more efficient.
Qiang Jianzhou, another leader from Xidian, even said it is unnecessary to keep the student information a secret from banks, since "banks will protect the customers' information."
At the end of the interview, Qiang said they will publish an online notice on tianya.cn, a popular online forum in China, and "occupy" other media channels to stop the news from spreading. He also warned the journalist not to do any further interview.
What's more ridiculous is, Qiang even threatened to detain the journalists when the interview finished. "I will make it a nationwide breaking news," Qiang yelled.
To date, although these cards have been written off, the bank insisted that they have not violated the regulation on credit card registration.
Two bank insiders' words may make it clear why the secret deal could be managed.
One insider told that every registration could be accounted into the bank staff's workload, and they could get an extra of ten yuan or even thirty yuan for each card if the registration number exceeds a scheduled amount.
Another one said banks targeted these students as their potential customers, because people will probably keep using the cards even after their graduation due to the loyalty to the first card.
A girl walks past a booth selling credit cards on campus in this undated photo. [Photo: CNR.cn]
