Enticing phrases such as "Need to cash out your shopping credit?" and "Low-cost rights protection, 100% refund if unsuccessful" often mask meticulously designed traps set by financial gray and black industries. In response to this persistent industry issue, national authorities are intensifying crackdown efforts. Recently, the Ministry of Public Security and the National Financial Regulatory Administration launched a new round of targeted cluster strikes against illegal activities in the financial sector, focusing on areas including illegal deposit and loan intermediation and "anti-collection" intermediation. This initiative sends a clear signal of stringent rectification of illegal intermediary practices and the protection of consumers' legitimate rights and interests.
Seizing this opportunity, Fenqi Le, a core fintech platform under its parent company Lexin (NASDAQ: LX), is actively responding to regulatory calls by leveraging Lexin's technological strengths. Through digital and intelligent prevention controls and collaborative governance, Fenqi Le is aligning with the high-pressure enforcement efforts of public security and regulatory bodies to jointly reduce the operating space for financial gray and black industries.
The rampant growth of these illicit activities stems from their evolution from isolated cases into a scaled, chain-like gray industry. Data indicates that the market size of related activities exceeded 280 billion yuan early last year, with an estimated workforce of over 8 million people. This industry has gradually formed a division of labor system covering multiple segments, including technology development, customer acquisition, fraud implementation, and fund transfers, continuously infringing on consumer rights and disrupting financial market order.
As criminal chains extend, financial gray and black industries exhibit cross-platform mobility characteristics. Coupled with the misuse of AI technology and constantly evolving fraudulent methods, governance challenges have significantly increased. Addressing single links in the chain is insufficient for effective containment, prompting a shift towards more intensive concentrated strikes and broader collaborative efforts.
From June to November last year, the Ministry of Public Security and the National Financial Regulatory Administration completed the first round of打击 actions, filing over 1,500 related criminal cases, dismantling more than 200 professional criminal gangs, with involved amounts totaling nearly 30 billion yuan. In April this year, a new round of围剿 operations commenced, with an expanded scope of rectification, advancing the governance of financial gray and black industries into a new phase characterized by high pressure and normalization.
In line with the cross-platform and chain-like characteristics of these crimes, the industry is progressively strengthening collaborative governance. In 2022, the first alliance in the financial sector aimed at combating black industries—the "Alliance Against Black Industries in Finance (AIF)"—was established. It now includes over a hundred member companies, enhancing overall governance efficiency through information sharing and joint打击 actions. As a member, Fenqi Le has participated in multiple joint operations. To date, alliance members have collectively assisted in handling 865 gray and black industry cases, imposed criminal compulsory measures and administrative penalties on 777 individuals, effectively issued warnings for 1.6663 million telecom network fraud cases, and assisted police in tracking down 149 fugitives.
The occurrence and evolution of financial gray and black industries highly depend on specific transaction scenarios. Companies, which host transactions and accumulate user and risk control data, are therefore the first line of defense against these threats. Their capabilities in risk identification, interception, and disposal directly impact governance effectiveness.
For instance, Fenqi Le, leveraging its parent company Lexin's technological core advantages, has built a comprehensive intelligent risk control system covering pre-loan, in-loan, and post-loan stages. Currently, this system can accurately warn against and intercept new types of fraudulent activities. Its AI anti-fraud model cluster can complete risk assessment for complex transaction scenarios within milliseconds. In 2025, the platform issued over 88 million anti-fraud security reminders to users, with the automation rate of fraud interception continuously improving. By the end of 2025, it had helped users avoid potential financial losses of approximately 950 million yuan. Additionally, Fenqi Le actively promotes police-enterprise collaboration through a dual-track model of "online monitoring + offline打击," enabling full-process coordination from clue discovery and joint analysis to case resolution. Over the past two-plus years, Fenqi Le has assisted police in Shanghai, Fujian, Shandong, Jiangsu, Liaoning, and other regions in investigating nearly 100 related cases, successfully dismantling 26 professional criminal gangs, and ensuring legal punishment for over 100 offenders.
It is foreseeable that through multi-party coordination and joint rectification efforts at the national, industry, and enterprise levels, the breeding and spread of financial gray and black industry chains will be gradually severed. The industry will accelerate its return to a more upright, standardized, and orderly development path. As a crucial frontline force in combating financial gray and black industries, Fenqi Le will fully utilize its technological advantages in big data, large AI models, and AI agents to strengthen its intelligent risk control capabilities, enhance peer collaboration, promote steady improvement in industry governance standards, and jointly build a safer and healthier financial ecosystem.