Police officers distribute notices to a crowd of people queuing up outside a branch of the People's Bank of China, who mistakenly believed they could get an interest-free loan in Beihai, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on Tuesday. Photo: IC

 

Police have cleared away thousands of people who had besieged a branch of China's central bank in the coastal city of Beihai, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region for days. 

The crowds, many of whom had come from outside the region, had believed a rumor that the sub-branch of the People's Bank of China (PBC) in Zhongxin district, Beihai could provide them with a good credit reference, which they could take to other commercial financial institutions to apply for an interest-free loan or credit card of 50,000 ($8,150) to 500,000 yuan.

The bank, which is not commercial, was forced to stop accepting applications for credit rating references. City authorities sent police officers to the branch on Tuesday afternoon to maintain order and avoid a stampede when the assembled residents, who had been lining up day and night, turned emotional.

"The bank stopped taking applications Tuesday and there are no residents gathering at the bank today," a media officer surnamed Zhang, from Beihai government, told the Global Times Wednesday.

Some non-locals, who had been there for days, waited outside around the clock and asked the whole family to join the team, according to a news release from Beihai government. People started arriving to apply for their credit rating at the end of June, at first in the dozens, then hundreds, but by Monday and Tuesday, the crowd had swollen to thousands.

A bank employee said their sub-branch received more than 10,000 application forms on Monday, China News Service reported.

The bank refuted rumors about the loans, and said that they can only supply an applicant's credit rating, and confirmed that the PBC does not offer personal loans or credit cards, nor zero-interest or subsidized loan services. 

Although the original source of the rumor could not be immediately traced, a woman with a northern accent told the China News Service that her family learned about the news from a real estate company website. The woman did not release the name of the company.

The incident shows that someone deliberately made up and spread rumors, and deluded innocent residents, according to the city's news release. The culprit would be held accountable under the nation's public security laws for creating a mass disturbance. 

"The banking system can seem quite opaque," Gu Xiaoming, a sociology professor with Fudan University, told the Global Times Wednesday, adding that people may have misunderstood the concept of credit reference.

The incident is under further investigation.