National Financial Regulatory Authority officials held a meeting with five online lending assistance platforms, including Qifu Jietiao and Niwodai Jiekuan, on March 13, 2026, emphasizing that the core of financial technology lies in "compliance and inclusion," not exploiting information asymmetry to disadvantage users. The regulators demanded that platforms standardize marketing, clearly disclose fees, protect personal information, and conduct compliant debt collection practices.
As the core lending assistance product of Qifu Technology (formerly 360 DigiTech), which holds dual listings in the US and Hong Kong (ticker: QFIN.US, 3660.HK), Qifu Jietiao (formerly 360 Jietiao) was specifically named in this meeting. This has once again spotlighted long-standing controversies surrounding the platform, including high hidden fees and aggressive debt collection tactics.
Simultaneously, Qifu Technology's latest disclosed 2025 financial report reveals a weakening performance. Specifically, the company experienced a full-year profit decline, significant pressure on fourth-quarter results, a contraction in outstanding loan balances, and an anticipated halving of net profit year-over-year for the first quarter of 2026. Coupled with the challenges of business model transformation under new lending assistance regulations, this dual-listed industry leader now faces the dual challenges of regulatory compliance and performance growth.
**Deconstructing Strategies Under a 'Legal Facade'**
The core of the dispute over Qifu Jietiao's fees lies in its practice of using "split fee categories and hidden clause designs" to push the actual annualized interest rate above the legal上限. A typical method involves deliberately downplaying additional costs in loan contracts, breaking down funding costs into multiple modules such as "interest + guarantee fee + membership fee + advisory fee."
One user posted on a complaint platform on March 7, stating that the platform has long-standing issues with splitting interest and service fees, artificially raising rates, excessively high comprehensive annualized rates, failing to clearly inform users of the true annualized percentage rate (APR), and lacking fee transparency, which seriously violates national financial regulatory requirements. The user claimed their multiple loans had universally high comprehensive APRs, far exceeding reasonable borrowing costs. Citing national regulations, the user demanded the platform recalculate all loans based on a 12% APR and refund all overcharged interest and unreasonable service fees. The user reported that repeated negotiations with customer service for refunds were met with evasion and refusal, prompting a request for the complaint platform's intervention.
Another user posted on March 6, detailing a loan of 28,400 yuan taken on January 4, 2025, through the Yitong Xiangrong Guarantee platform, to be repaid over 12 installments. After repaying a total of 33,967.65 yuan, including 5,567.65 yuan in interest and various fees, a professional calculation showed the loan's actual APR was approximately 35.6%. This far exceeds the judicial protection upper limit for private lending rates (14.6%) set by national regulations, constituting typical usurious behavior.
Meanwhile, issues of aggressive debt collection and information leakage by Qifu Jietiao have become the "last straw" disrupting users' normal lives, leading to a concentrated outbreak of related complaints. One user complained about receiving threatening text messages from unknown numbers, which leaked their household registration information and involved harassment of relatives and friends through frequent calls and messages. This behavior, allegedly constituting aggressive collection and harassment of unrelated individuals, along with the illegal acquisition and leakage of personal privacy information, severely violates China's Personal Information Protection Law, Public Security Administration Punishment Law, and financial regulators' rules on collection practices, crossing legal and compliance red lines.
As of March 17, 2026, complaints related to "Qifu Jietiao (formerly 360 Jietiao)" on the Hei Mao投诉 platform exceeded 49,000. Complaints about high interest and hidden fees constituted a significant portion, with core demands focusing on refunding excess interest, providing detailed fee breakdowns, and standardizing fee disclosures. Data from other third-party complaint platforms indicates that related complaints continue to grow, with user dissatisfaction over the platform's "disguised usury" persisting.
The叠加 of aggressive collection, information leakage complaints, and high hidden fee issues has fully exposed Qifu Jietiao's compliance problems. The regulatory meeting explicitly demanded "lawful and compliant debt collection" and "strict adherence to personal information protection regulations," directly targeting these violations.
In fact, this is not the first time compliance issues have surfaced for Qifu Technology (including its predecessor). As early as before its IPO, it faced regulatory scrutiny over information security and chaotic collection practices. This recent meeting represents a concentrated eruption of long-standing compliance risks. In 2021, the 360 Jietiao app was removed from app stores by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for "illegally collecting personal information" and was subsequently interviewed by financial regulators, requiring comprehensive compliance checks on its lending assistance business processes, making it a key target for rectification in the internet finance sector that year.
On December 31, 2025, according to a penalty decision published by the People's Bank of China Fujian Branch, the company's subsidiary, Fuzhou Qifu Microfinance Co., Ltd., was fined 1.19 million yuan for violating regulations concerning the collection, provision, and inquiry of credit information. A responsible individual was also fined 70,000 yuan, making it one of the first institutions penalized after the new lending assistance rules took effect.
**Growth Dilemma for a Listed Lending Leader**
As a leading enterprise in China's lending assistance industry, Qifu Technology listed on Nasdaq in 2018 and completed a dual primary listing on the Hong Kong Exchange in 2024. However, its performance showed significant volatility in 2025, and combined with tightening regulations, its future growth prospects have been overshadowed.
The latest financial report indicates that in 2025, affected by macroeconomic uncertainty, changes in industry regulations, and tightening liquidity, Qifu Technology proactively adjusted its business strategy. While its user base continued to grow, loan facilitation volume became more differentiated. Financially, full-year revenue increased year-over-year, but profit slightly declined. Fourth-quarter performance decreased noticeably due to industry-wide challenges. The company continued to advance shareholder returns and capital optimization but maintained a cautious outlook for first-quarter 2026 performance.
Specifically, the total loan facilitation and origination volume for full-year 2025 was 3,270.69 billion yuan, a slight increase of 1.6% year-over-year. However, significantly impacted by industry conditions in the fourth quarter, the single-quarter volume was 702.97 billion yuan, a decrease of 21.8% year-over-year. Within this, the volume for the capital-light model was 307.72 billion yuan, plunging 35.6% year-over-year.
Simultaneously, Qifu Technology maintained a high repeat borrowing rate in 2025, an indicator that is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the repeat borrowing rate remained robust at 90.8% for Q4 2025 and 93.3% for the full year, a slight increase of 0.2 percentage points from 93.1% in 2024, indicating a solid user base and stickiness.
On the other hand, underlying operational worries emerged. As of the end of 2025, the total outstanding loan balance was 1,260.12 billion yuan, down 8.0% year-over-year. The outstanding balance for the capital-light model was 594.97 billion yuan, falling 25.3% year-over-year. Additionally, loan terms were passively extended. The weighted average contract term was 11.0 months in Q4, one month longer than the same period in 2024, and 10.50 months for the full year, an increase of 0.45 months year-over-year. Behind the high repeat borrowing rate, signals of business contraction and eased repayment pressure are emerging, warranting vigilance.
For full-year 2025, revenue increased while profit declined, with Q4 performance under particular pressure. Full-year net revenue was 19.205 billion yuan, up 11.9% year-over-year. Q4 net revenue was 4.093 billion yuan, down 8.7% year-over-year. Full-year net profit was 5.976 billion yuan, down 4.3% year-over-year, and non-GAAP net profit was 6.354 billion yuan, down 0.9% year-over-year. Q4 net profit was 1.016 billion yuan, plummeting 46.9% year-over-year, and non-GAAP net profit was 1.071 billion yuan, down 45.7% year-over-year.
Risk indicators also rose. As of end-2025, the 90-day+ delinquency rate for loans originated by partner financial institutions was 2.71%. In Q4 2025, as industry-wide risk levels increased, the first-day delinquency rate reached 6.1%, and the 30-day collection rate was 84.1%.
Furthermore, the report noted that due to persistent macroeconomic uncertainty and regulatory pressure, the company prioritizes risk control and holds a cautious attitude towards Q1 2026 performance. It expects single-quarter net profit between 830 million and 880 million yuan, and non-GAAP net profit between 900 million and 950 million yuan, representing year-over-year declines of 51% to 53% for both metrics.
For the first three quarters of 2025, cumulative revenue was 15.112 billion yuan, with net profit of 4.960 billion yuan. Net profit for Q1, Q2, and Q3 was 1.797 billion yuan, 1.730 billion yuan, and 1.433 billion yuan respectively, showing a sequential quarterly decline.
With the implementation of the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Commercial Banks' Internet Lending Assistance Business to Enhance Financial Service Quality and Efficiency," the lending assistance industry has entered an era of "strong regulation." Qifu Technology is forced to transition from a "capital-heavy" model to a "capital-light" model, facing short-term pressures from high costs and contracting revenue.
The Q3 2025 report showed the company's total loan facilitation and origination volume was 83.28 billion yuan, a slight increase of 1.0% year-over-year but a slight decrease of 1.6% quarter-over-quarter. The volume for the capital-light model was 34.76 billion yuan, accounting for 41.7% of the total, but fell sharply by 23.4% year-over-year and 0.8% quarter-over-quarter, indicating a clear contraction in the capital-light business.
Concurrently, macroeconomic volatility led to rising delinquency rates, further eroding company profits. In Q3 2025, Qifu Technology's asset quality was significantly pressured by the macroeconomic environment and strained user finances, with various risk indicators showing weakening trends. Although the company achieved marginal improvement in the risk profile of new loans by tightening risk control standards, the risk from the existing loan portfolio was a clear drag. Coupled with substantial provision set-asides, this directly impacted performance.
As of September 30, 2025, the 90-day+ delinquency rate for loans originated by partner institutions reached 2.09%, indicating significant asset quality pressure. Core leading risk indicators also performed poorly: the first-day delinquency rate was approximately 5.5%, reflecting increased risk at the front end of new loan origination, and the 30-day collection rate was 85.7%, indicating a decline in short-term collection efficiency for delinquent loans. The overall risk exposure of the credit asset portfolio expanded.
To address asset quality volatility, the company significantly increased various risk provisions in the quarter. Provisions for loans receivable were 837.8 million yuan, surging 75.4% year-over-year. Provisions for contingent liabilities were 773.1 million yuan, skyrocketing 1115.3% year-over-year. While these high provisions adequately cover current delinquency risks, they directly consume profits, becoming a major reason for the year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter decline in net profit.
In response to asset quality pressures, the company further tightened risk control standards in September and October of Q3. The risk performance of newly issued loans gradually stabilized and showed marginal improvement. However, the risk release from the existing portfolio significantly offset the overall risk improvement. The company explicitly expects the overall risk level to continue fluctuating in the coming months until substantial changes occur in the loan portfolio structure.
This regulatory meeting serves not only as a warning to Qifu Technology but also as a signal to the entire lending assistance industry. Under the regulatory direction of "finance serving the people," business models reliant on high interest and deceptive fees are no longer sustainable.
On one hand, the new lending rules explicitly forbid platforms from participating in credit granting, providing risk guarantees, or artificially raising interest rates through fee splitting, which will directly compress platform profit margins. On the other hand, consumer protection efforts are continuously strengthening, with complaint platforms and regulators forming a concerted force that compels platforms to operate standardly.
For Qifu Technology, if it fails to achieve substantial improvements in fee disclosure, collection compliance, and user service, it will not only face stricter regulatory penalties but may also further lose users, worsen its performance, and ultimately impact its capital market valuation.
Qifu Technology's stock price hit an annual high of HKD 197.03 per share in May 2025. Subsequently, influenced by multiple negative factors including deteriorating asset quality, a quarterly loss in Q4, regulatory penalties, and the recent meeting, the stock price began a steep decline. As of the latest close, the Hong Kong stock price fell 10.58% to HKD 52.85 per share, down 73.18% from the 2025 high.
The rebranding from "360 Jietiao" to "Qifu Jietiao" has failed to掩盖 its long-standing compliance issues. This regulatory intervention serves both as a reckoning for past misconduct and a test for future development. During the critical period of the lending assistance industry's transition towards "compliance and capital-light" operations, whether Qifu Technology can shed its "traffic-driven mindset" and genuinely return to the essence of financial services requires more time to verify. However, it is certain that the regulatory sword has fallen, and industry reshuffling has just begun.