China Commercial Credit to Resume Trading Today on NASDAQ

NASDAQ Issues Public Reprimand Letter to Company

WUJIANG, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / April 22, 2015 / China Commercial Credit, Inc. (NASDAQ: CCCR) (the “Company”), a microfinance company providing financial services to small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), farmers and individuals in Jiangsu Province, today announced that the Listing Qualifications Staff (the “Staff”) of The NASDAQ Stock Market LLC (“NASDAQ”) notified the Company of its decision not to initiate delisting procedures against the Company and that the Company’s common stock will resume trading on NASDAQ today, April 22, 2015.

Instead of delisting, the Staff issued a Public Reprimand Letter based on the Company’s failure to make “prompt disclosure to the public” of material information related to the unauthorized transfer by its former Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), Huichin Qin, of approximately $1.1 million from a Company bank account to his personal bank account (the “Transfer”), as well as his subsequent detention by Chinese governmental authorities. Receipt of this Public Reprimand Letter does not negatively impact the Company’s listing on NASDAQ nor have any repercussion to the Company.

On August 22, 2014, the Company filed a Current Report on Form 8-K announcing Mr. Qin’s resignation from the board of directors and as CEO, effective immediately. On September 11, 2014, the Company submitted to NASDAQ a draft Form 8-K disclosing the Transfer. The Company also announced it had formed a Special Committee to review the circumstances surrounding the Transfer. Upon review of the draft Form 8-K, the Staff halted trading in the Company’s common stock on September 12, 2014 and issued a letter requesting information from the Company regarding the matters disclosed.

During the time the Company’s common stock was halted, the Company provided the requested information to the Staff. It also filed its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for periods ended June 30, 2014 and September 30, 2014 and annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014, and accordingly, regained compliance with the filing requirement. The Company filed a Form 8-K on February 10, 2015 announcing, among other things, completion of the internal review and that the Company had taken steps to improve its internal controls and procedures to prevent future unauthorized fund transfers.

On April 20, 2015, the Staff notified the Company of its decision not to initiate delisting procedures The Staff considered a number of factors in its decision, including: (i) the Company does not have any history of listing standard deficiencies and has taken steps to assure that similar disclosure failures will not recur; (ii) the substance of the information that was not promptly disclosed, and the delay in disclosing it; (iii) the Company’s formation of a Special Committee of the board of directors to review the Transfer; (iv) Mr. Qin’s immediate resignation at managements’ request; (v) that Mr. Qin acted alone and succeeded in effecting the Transfer only through the use of lower level employees; (vi) that the Company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) the reports for the periods affected by the Transfer and is now current in its periodic filing obligations, and (vii) the remedial measures implemented by the Company to address the internal control weaknesses exposed by the Transfer.

About China Commercial Credit:

China Commercial Credit, founded in 2008, provides business loans and loan guarantee services to small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), farmers and individuals in China’s Jiangsu Province. Due to recent legislation and banking reform in China, these SMEs, farmers and individuals – which historically had been excluded from borrowing funds from State-owned and commercial banks – are now able to borrow money at competitive rates from microfinance lenders.

Investors seeking additional information on CCCR may go to the Asia IR/PR client page at http://asia-irpr.com/clients/cccr/.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of United States securities laws. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations. You should review the factors described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on February 17, 2015 and other documents we file from time to time with the SEC. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

CONTACT:

Investors

Jimmy Caplan
Market Makers
512-329-9505
jimmy@asia-irpr.com

Media

Rick Eisenberg
Eisenberg Communications
212-496-6828
rick@asia-irpr.com

SOURCE: China Commercial Credit, Inc.

ReleaseID: 428070