China is laying bare the naked (loan) truth.
If you need a loan in China, just hand over a naked shot of yours. It's as simple as that.
There are many ways for a lender to guarantee their loans, but Chinese online loan sharks have resorted to an unconventional way or to say a 'below-the-belt' way of securing repayment of their loans – by demanding naked photos from female borrowers.
The Financial Times reported female college students in the southern province of Guangdong were told to hand over naked photos of themselves holding their ID cards, with lenders threatening to make them public if they failed to repay their microloans, according to local newspaper the Nandu Daily.
Weekly interest rates at 30% leave borrowers with spiralling debts.
One student told the Southern Metropolis Daily she first borrowed 500 yuan (US$76) at a weekly interest rate of 30%. She then kept taking out new loans to pay off the old ones, and her debt snowballed to 55,000 yuan. That was when the lender demanded a nude photo as a guarantee for new loans.
However, following publication of the story, the loan sharks had suspended the practice, the newspaper claimed in a follow-up article.
According to Chinese media, it is difficult for college students to get credit because of strict rules and limited availability.
