2003年　消費者金融サービス研究学会年報　No.6

わが国の消費者政策の歴史は、1960年代から始まった行政規制を中心とした消費者保護、1990年代に現われた消費者に権利を与える民事ルールの整備、そして21世紀に入って注目されるようになった市場を通じて企業の自主的取組みを促進するという手法の３つの波として整理することができる。行政規制のやり方は、事前規制から事後規制に、明確なルール設定と法令違反に対する厳罰へと変化してきている。民事ルールの機能は、裁判規範の面より、事業者に対して行為の指針を示すという行為規範の面が大きい。事業者の自主的取組みは、消費者のみならず、企業を取り巻く多様な利害関係者の利益をも尊重した経営、すなわち「企業の社会的責任」重視の方向に進んできている。消費者金融サービスを行う貸金業界もこの変化と無縁ではありえず、消費者や社会からの信頼なしには持続的な発展を維持できない。ただし、消費者金融サービスには、窮迫状態にある消費者に対してなされるという特殊性があり、そのため法律による一定の規制が必要になる。法律的規制の土俵の上で、リピーターのくる消費者金融サービスに向けた信頼獲得競争が行われることが必要である。2003年の貸金業規制法改正に際して新設された貸金業務取扱主任者制度がどの程度の効果を発揮するかが、この点を占う試金石となろう。

The development of consumer policy in Japan may be characterized as a series of policy “waves”. The first wave of consumer policy was based on government regulation, which started in the 1960s. The second wave in the 1990s saw the establishment of private law rules that would allow consumers to protect their interests themselves through litigation. The third wave, which is emerging in the 21st century, is consumer policy focusing on corporate codes of conduct and compliance in general, and aiming to increase consumer welfare through the market mechanism. Ways of government regulation have changed from entry-to-the-market regulation to ex-post regulation based on clear rules and with heavy penalties for offenders. Private law rules functions not only as rules, which would be applied in the court, but also indicates what would be better practice for business. In fact, the latter plays a more important role than the former. Voluntary efforts by business to gain consumers’ confidence extends to “Corporate Social Responsibility”, which requires management to pay consideration to the interests of a variety of stakeholders. The money lending industry may not be immune from this trend and it is difficult to enjoy sustainable prosperity without confidence given by the society. However, money lending is particularly different from other type of services in that it is provided to those consumers pressured for money. This necessitates government regulation of the industry. The money lending industry must compete on the platform regulated by law for gaining repeating customers’ confidence. Whether the requirement of having a registered money lending manager introduced by the 2003 reform of the Money Lending Business Law will have any effect or not is a touchstone for this.