Relentless phone calls, threatening texts, and harassing borrowers’ social circles – for a time, these were the most common tactics for debt collectors in China to obtain delinquent payments. As the role mostly involved more simple and direct techniques, a high school diploma previously sufficed as an educational minimum.

But now, Chinese banks are actively recruiting for in-house debt collection teams with much higher standards in place.

Last month, Sanxiang Bank – a private bank based…