Something tells me I should email this Shanghai Daily article to all the members of the U.S. Congress, at least the ones who aren’t taking money from the credit card industry (if there are any left):

Shanghai’s banking regulator, responding to rising problems related to a surge in the number of credit cards, says lenders will no longer be allowed to outsource the business of signing up new cardholders.

The Shanghai bureau of the China Banking Regulatory Commission also warned banks against incentives that reward salespeople only on the basis of how many new cardholders they bring in. “Complaints related to credit cards are on the rise this year amid the rampant issuing of cards,” the local regulator said. “We found that the credit-card business at many banks is poorly regulated, and we are requiring banks to tighten their monitoring and management of these cards.”

Complaints related to credit cards are the most prevalent public gripe about banking services.

In many instances, salespeople employed by subcontractors have signed up people who aren’t creditworthy and can’t make monthly payments. That enraged many parents in the city, who were shocked to be presented with bills for cards issued to their sons and daughters.

In other cases, people who sign up for credit cards to get introductory gifts and free bonus points but don’t activate the cards then find they are being charged an annual fee. The regulator said banks can’t now seek fees for unactivated cards.

There is also the problem of people getting multiple cards from different banks. The regulator said banks will be required to carefully vet credit limits for people with three or more cards.

Imagine that, actually protecting consumers from dodgy credit card company practices. Too bad that’ll never happen in the U.S.

What sort of regulatory authority does the U.S. government exert over the credit card industry? Well, in 2005 (after a lot of lobbying money was funneled into Congress), they passed the “Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act,” which among other things made it more difficult for people to file for bankruptcy protection. Specifically, the bill made life a lot nicer for the credit card industry and did surprisingly little, given the name of the bill, to protect consumers. Ah, the Bush years.

Let’s give it up for the Shanghai CBRC. Maybe they can send a few policy guys over to D.C. to give a presentation on industry regulation to the stupid schmucks currently failing miserably at reforming the U.S. health care system.