Multiple measures should be taken to recover the university student loans owed to commercial banks, says an article in Qilu Evening News. The following is an excerpt:

The Beijing branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China published a list of 1,200 people on its website with detailed personal information, including their names, identity card numbers, addresses and phone numbers.

All of them, the bank said, had signed up for a student loan while they were at university, but had stopped making repayments over the past two or three years. The loans totaled 37.1 million yuan ($4.9 million).

While it is natural for the bank to want to recoup its money, it should be careful what tactics it employs to get clients to pay up.

Banks should also bear in mind that student loans have different characteristics to standard commercial loans.

The bank in this case should have categorized its defaulters in terms of those who deliberately chose not to pay and those who might simply have been unable to do so.

For those who are prepared to repay their loan but are having difficulty doing so, the bank should help reach some mutual understanding and set a plan to have the loan paid back as soon as is feasibly possible.

For those who simply refuse to pay back the money, the bank could seek help from the court. There are plenty of precedents.

Banks often have problems with student loans: The global default rate is 28.4 percent.

The government could offer some help on this issue. After all, student loans are part of the State's efforts to aid students from less well-off families to get a higher education.

The Shanghai government has agreed to pay back the loans taken by students if they agree to work in less developed parts of the country in the central and western regions. Other provincial governments should take note.

(China Daily 07/24/2007 page10)