Head lending assistance executed over 340 million, medical aesthetics scene risks draw attention

A reporter from China Economic Daily, Zheng Yu, Shanghai

As legal risks involving leading medical aesthetics lending platforms have been exposed, risks in the medical aesthetics installment financing niche have once again come into focus.

According to information from the China Enforcement Information Disclosure website, as an established institution in the medical aesthetics lending sector, Shanghai Jike Intelligent Technology Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jike Group”) was listed as a judgment debtor three times in January, February, and March, with the total enforcement amount exceeding 340 million yuan.

According to the latest disclosure of the list of cooperative institutions by Chongqing Xiaomi Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Xiaomi Consumer Finance”), Inner Mongolia Mengshang Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Mengshang Consumer Finance”), and Sichuan Jincheng Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jincheng Consumer Finance”), Jike Group still remains a lending partner institution.

As of now, on the Hei Tiao consumer service platform under Sina, 211 complaints include the search term “Jike Group,” and 7,623 complaints include “Ji Fenqi” (“Jike Group’s” product).

Three models for business

According to the official website of Jike Group, it was founded in 2014. Its business covers 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions across the country, more than 300 cities, and has served dozens of licensed institutions, tens of thousands of merchants, and tens of millions of consumers.

Behind the medical aesthetics installment financing market is the rapid growth of the medical aesthetics industry. According to disclosures by the National Healthcare Security Administration, according to incomplete statistics, the size of China’s beauty and plastic surgery market in 2024 is nearly 300 billion yuan.

At present, the combination of finance and medical aesthetics services in the medical aesthetics installment financing market can mainly be divided into three models. The first is that consumers apply directly for cash loans from financial institutions such as banks and consumer finance companies, and decide independently to use the funds to pay for medical beauty expenses. The second is that financial institutions cooperate with lending platforms that connect to beauty institutions (such as Jike Group) to provide medical aesthetics installment financing services for consumers. The third is that financial institutions directly cooperate with large chain medical aesthetics hospitals, without a lending platform serving as an intermediary.

According to publicly available court judgments, in 2022, a borrower applied for an individual consumer loan from Jincheng Consumer Finance through the “Ji Fenqi” platform for medical aesthetics needs. A guarantee company provided guarantee liability for the principal and interest of the loan. In addition, the aforementioned guarantee company and Jike Group also needed to sign a “Counter-guarantee Contract,” stipulating that Jike Group would provide collateralized counter-guarantee for the guarantee liability that the guarantee company assumes for the loan contract signed by the borrower. The guarantee company also has four historical records of being listed as a judgment debtor. Moreover, besides the loan’s fixed annualized interest rate of 10.3%, the borrower also needed to pay a guarantee fee.

In a case concluded in 2025, in 2020 Jike Group participated in medical aesthetics installment financing loans, with the loan’s annualized interest rate at 11.50% and the guarantee fee rate at 19.96%. The total comprehensive annualized interest rate exceeded 24%, and the counter-guarantee was still provided by Jike Group.

It is noteworthy that, in the “Notice on Strengthening the Management of Internet Lending Business by Commercial Banks to Improve the Quality and Effectiveness of Financial Services” issued and effective in 2025 (Jin Gui〔2025〕9), it is clearly stated that the borrower’s comprehensive financing cost must include all expenses such as credit enhancement service fees, guarantee fees, and platform service fees, and that the annualized rate must not exceed the judicial protection cap of 24%. Recently, the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the People’s Bank of China jointly issued the “Provisions on Clearly Stating the Comprehensive Financing Cost in Individual Loan Business,” which clarifies that starting from August 1, 2026, all personal loan businesses must present the annualized comprehensive financing cost to borrowers through a unified “disclosure statement.”

Regarding risk events in which the guarantor is listed as a judgment debtor and how to reduce prior annualized interest rates under the new regulations, the reporter sent an interview request letter to Jike Group. As of the time of publication, no response had been received.

Similarly, high interest rates in the medical aesthetics installment financing market have also been reflected in litigation disputes involving a lending-related small-loan company affiliated with another leading institution in the medical aesthetics lending market. Multiple judgment documents published in 2025 show that in 2023, Shanghai Jiading Tonghua Small Loan Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Shanghai Jiading Tonghua Small Loan”) provided installment financing loans for medical care/beauty life for borrowers at an annualized interest rate of 23.99% or 24%. Public information shows that Shanghai Jiading Tonghua Small Loan is a small-loan company under Uxin (NASDAQ: SY).

Regarding the interest rate level in 2023, Uxin told the reporter that in 2025 Shanghai Jiading Tonghua Small Loan was rated as an A-category small-loan company in Shanghai, with steady and compliant operations and good regulatory evaluations. Its overall comprehensive annualized interest rate is currently below 17%. It will strictly follow regulatory requirements, step-by-step reduce rates within the prescribed time limits, and gradually adjust the rates of its self-operated products to within 12%.

In terms of risk prevention and control in the current medical aesthetics installment financing scenario, Uxin stated that the platform has not launched self-operated medical aesthetics installment financing products. In the user payment stage, it only connects to third-party installment financing services, and the third party and licensed financial institutions independently operate and conduct risk control.

It is also noteworthy that in Uxin’s payment stage, a beauty appointment deposit of 10 yuan can be paid in 12 installments, with each repayment of 0.98 yuan. In considering such extremely small-amount installment financing, Uxin believes that “this ultra-small installment plan is not directly designed and operated by our company; its core function is not within the scope of a customer acquisition model.”

However, relevant personnel from the provider of third-party installment financing services said that the number of installment periods and the installment amounts are set by the (medical aesthetics) platform.

Su Xiaorui, a senior researcher at Fortune and Wisdom Research, said that for users, products like 10 yuan paid in 12 installments, extremely small-amount installment financing, require them to pay attention to the interest rate and repayment method before placing an order, and to realize that even if the amount is small, it is still a credit product, so as to avoid falling into overdue payments. Sometimes, behind these products there are services linked to attracting new customers. For different entities in the scenario, the meanings differ: for medical aesthetics institutions, it is a tool for customer acquisition and lead generation; for financial institutions, it is an entry point to obtain young customer groups, accumulate big data, and grow the scale of assets. The real profits occur when users make a substantive conversion after arriving at the venue, and in future higher-credit-limit demand and cross-selling of loans.

Scenario risks are hard to control

A financial institution practitioner in North China told the reporter that the cooperation between their institution and Uxin and Jike Group has been stopped for many years.

Su Xiaorui reminded that centered on the medical aesthetics scenario, as a financial technology service provider, the lending platform providing matching and technology services to banks and other licensed financial institutions and consumer scenarios (merchants) still faces the following pain points: first, customer acquisition costs are high. In recent years, the unit customer acquisition cost of effective customers has increased significantly, putting pressure on platform profitability. Second, the risks at the scenario side are difficult to manage, especially in some small and medium-sized scenario merchants, where risks such as a break in the capital chain may exist during operations. Third, with core risk control capabilities and the pressure from non-performing issues, if risk control capabilities are insufficient, the model fails, or the cooperation scenario side commits fraud/induces consumers, a certain scale of overdue non-performing issues may be generated.

The reporter sent interview request letters to Xiaomi Consumer Finance, Mengshang Consumer Finance, and Jincheng Consumer Finance regarding the recent listing of Jike Group as a judgment debtor, hoping to understand relevant cooperation matters. As of the time of publication, none of the three institutions had responded.

Wonton Consulting’s chief analyst Wang Pengbo believes that for cooperative licensed consumer finance companies, they need to immediately investigate the effectiveness of existing asset guarantees and the ability to compensate, initiate risk-asset deleveraging and strengthen collections, pause new credit granting, and re-verify the qualification of cooperative institutions. They should focus on preventing guarantee failure, moral hazard of lending platforms, batch fraudulent loan taking, and the transmission of compliance penalties, improve contract recourse clauses, and do a good job in public opinion and regulatory response.

A 2025 follow-up credit rating report from a certain consumer finance company shows that in education and medical aesthetics scenarios, through scenario service providers, namely B-end merchants, in offline consumption scenarios the company provides scenario installment services for users via entrusted payment. In terms of selection of sub-markets and cooperative institutions, the company mainly focuses on leading education institutions in sub-industries such as vocational education, higher education, and test prep and training, as well as large national chain medical aesthetics and plastic surgery hospitals. Through higher entry thresholds, standardized merchant risk management systems, and appropriate introduction of guarantee companies for credit enhancement, the company reduces potential losses that may be caused by reasons such as poor operations by B-end parties.

A representative from the consumer finance company told the reporter that the company prioritizes cooperation with large national chain medical aesthetics groups, using their strong capital strength and compliant operating foundations to reduce merchant cash-out risks and customer complaint dispute risks from the source. While ensuring that scenario transactions are real and user identities are real, it also reduces disputes arising from service quality that could implicate financial institutions.

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