On March 18, 2012, the State Council officially approved Wenzhou’s comprehensive financial reform plan. This plan may become the most eye-catching major breakthrough in my country’s economic system reform in recent years. For this reform to achieve breakthrough progress, it depends on the transformation of government functions. At this stage, my country's economic growth is largely government-led. In order to make economic growth subject to its specific development goals, the government must directly control a large part of financial resources, which determines that my country's banking industry at this stage must have the characteristics of a high degree of monopoly. In connection with this, policies will inevitably be adopted to discriminate against, exclude, and even ban private finance in certain circumstances. The existence and development of private finance will inevitably compete with state-owned banks for funding sources and infringe on the vested monopoly interests of state-owned banks. Therefore, it is difficult to develop normally. This is the fundamental reason why Wenzhou has produced millions of private entrepreneurs (manufacturing companies) but has never produced a single private banker. The outbreak of the private lending crisis in Wenzhou in 2011 was a bad thing, but it can be turned into a good thing, that is, it will help speed up the reform of my country's financial system, make private finance gradually become more transparent, standardized, and institutionalized, and make the private lending crisis disappear from my country's financial field. , so that private enterprises can develop healthily.

1. The root cause of Wenzhou’s private lending crisis

Fundamentally speaking, Wenzhou’s private lending crisis stems from the profit-seeking nature of capital, or the impulse of capital to pursue profits, and The spontaneity, blindness and information asymmetry of capital movement.

Looking at the financial crises at home and abroad, they are all the result of the vicious expansion of the virtual economy. From 2001 to 2004, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates 13 times in a row, from 6.5 to 1. Stimulated by low interest rates, the U.S. real estate market is highly prosperous, and a large amount of money has entered the high-risk, high-yield market of subprime debt. The existence and development of the U.S. subprime loan market depends on the improvement of the macro economy and the continued rise in housing prices. Borrowers can repay their loans on time and the collateral has a stable income stream. However, after the second half of 2005, the U.S. economic cycle reversed, and the GDP growth rate in the fourth quarter was only 1.1. From 2004 to the end of 2006, the U.S. raised interest rates 17 times in a row. The increase in benchmark interest rates led to an increase in mortgage interest rates, forcing home buyers to repay their loans. The pressure increases. During the same period, the U.S. housing market experienced a downturn, and sales of new homes and existing homes began to decline. The U.S. real estate market began to decline at the end of 2006, and house prices fell by more than 10% from the third quarter of 2006 to the third quarter of 2007. As a result, on the one hand, the default rate of lenders increased, and on the other hand, the price of mortgaged properties shrank. Under the double blow, the capital circulation of lending institutions was broken, and chain reactions followed one after another, and the subprime mortgage crisis broke out.

The trigger for the outbreak of the private lending crisis in Wenzhou was also the turning point from loose monetary policy to tight monetary policy. In the face of the global financial crisis in 2008, my country implemented proactive fiscal policies and loose monetary policies. Excess liquidity drove up the prices of real estate, coal mines and other assets, tempting manufacturing entrepreneurs to switch to real estate and real estate in pursuit of high profits. Industries such as coal mining have strengthened the virtual economy and weakened the real economy. In the ranking of Wenzhou's top 100 private enterprises in 2010, more than 50 enterprises were involved in real estate. The investment in real estate by private enterprises in Wenzhou has surpassed the "real estate speculation" stage, and real estate has become an indispensable industry for many private enterprises in Wenzhou. ?Selling goods is not as good as selling capital? It has been deeply praised by Wenzhou entrepreneurs. In Wenzhou's traditional clothing industry, companies with certain brands and reputations are directly involved in real estate. Including Younger, Shanshan, Peacebird, Annunciation Bird and so on. Aokang Group, a well-known shoe company in the country, is also a real estate developer known to ordinary people. However, loose monetary policy is unsustainable. As the loose monetary policy changes to a moderately tight monetary policy, some private enterprises are forced to borrow money from the government on a large scale in order to fill the "fund hole" caused by expansionary impulse.

At the same time, the government was worried about the real estate bubble and strengthened macro-control of real estate, including "purchase restrictions" and "loan restrictions". As a result, real estate could not be sold and capital turnover was interrupted. It also forced entrepreneurs to resort to large-scale loans to promote private lending. A sharp rise in interest rates. When the economic benefits of an enterprise cannot bear the high interest rates, the capital chain will inevitably break. As a result, the private lending crisis broke out. It can be seen that the outbreak of the private lending crisis is caused by the inherent profit-seeking nature of capital, that is, the pursuit of high profits, the blindness and spontaneity of capital movement, and the asymmetry of information. As long as underground finance exists, recurring private lending crises are inevitable. The cyclical nature of private lending crises and the cyclical nature of macroeconomic operations are complementary to each other.

In April 2011, information about the collapse of private enterprises in Wenzhou was publicly disclosed. In late September 2011, news that a Wenzhou business owner had "ran away" quickly spread through media reports. Among them, Hu Fulin, chairman of Zhejiang Xintai Group Company (the largest eyewear company in Wenzhou), and Sun Fucai, chairman of Wenzhou Omi Fluid Equipment Co., Ltd., became the media's focus after their temporary loss of contact was confirmed. ?Hu Fulin’s funds were broken due to ***. When he fled, his total debt amounted to more than 2 billion yuan, of which 800 million yuan was bank loans with monthly interest of more than 5 million yuan; the remaining 1.2 billion yuan was bank loans with monthly interest of more than 20 million yuan. By the end of December 2011, the number of Wenzhou bosses running away and businesses closing or suspending production had increased from 93 in early October to more than 140. Later, the government introduced countermeasures, and private institutions carried out mutual assistance. In addition to establishing the Wenzhou Private Capital Investment Service Center, they also established a 200 million yuan "Enterprise Reorganization Request Relief Fund", and adopted administrative measures to prohibit the use of violence to force debt repayments. Waiting until the private lending crisis temporarily calmed down. According to the central bank, the private lending crisis has not only occurred in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, but also in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, Qingdao, Shandong, Anyang, Henan, Yuyang, Jiangsu, Dongguan and Shenzhen, Guangdong, Xiamen and Anxi, Fujian, Guyuan, Ningxia, and other places where private lending capital chains have been broken. An incident with the boss? Running away?

2. Wenzhou’s private lending crisis forced the launch of comprehensive financial reforms

As early as August 2002, Dai Xianglong, then governor of the central bank, visited Wenzhou for five days and proposed that Wenzhou’s financial Ideas for institutional reform. In December 2002, the Zhejiang Provincial Government and the Shanghai Branch of the People's Bank of China jointly held a "Work Conference on Deepening Wenzhou's Financial System Reform" in Wenzhou, announcing that Wenzhou would be the only financial reform pilot zone in the country and officially launch a new round of reform. But industry insiders say little substantive progress has been made over the years. This shows the difficulty of reforming my country’s financial system. The private lending crisis in Wenzhou in the second half of 2011, which attracted great attention from all over the country, is considered to be the direct cause of Wenzhou's comprehensive financial reform. Because it is easier to gather public knowledge when financial reforms are launched during the private lending crisis. In early 2011, before the private lending crisis broke out publicly in Wenzhou, the Wenzhou Municipal Government took the lead in trying to launch local financial reforms, but there was no substantial progress. It was not until the second half of 2011 that the private lending crisis broke out in Wenzhou, which attracted the attention of senior central leaders, and the reform entered the fast lane. It took less than half a year from the proposal of the concept of Wenzhou Financial Reform Pilot Zone to the formal approval of the implementation of the "overall plan" by the State Council. In an environment where my country's overall financial system reform is still difficult to advance in depth, how to explore effective reform breakthroughs has become extremely urgent.

Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China, pointed out that the key points and key points of Wenzhou's comprehensive financial supporting reform are to reduce regulation, support innovation, encourage private operations, serve the grassroots, support the real economy, coordinate supporting facilities, and ensure safety and stability. . What should be done in actual operations? Rely on the market and adapt to the market. ?It is necessary to effectively improve the ability to transform private funds into industrial capital through comprehensive financial reforms. Improve the financial product innovation system focusing on small and micro enterprises and "agriculture, rural areas and farmers", enhance the ability to prevent and resolve financial risks, and optimize the local financial ecological environment.

The State Council executive meeting identified 12 tasks for Wenzhou's comprehensive financial reform, which were summarized and highlighted five key points: 1. Focus on improving the financial service system for small and micro enterprises, including promoting the transformation of qualified small loan companies into village banks. Allow qualified natural persons and private enterprises to initiate and participate in rural banks and financial organizations; 2. Open private lending registration service centers and private capital management companies to expand private capital investment channels; 3. Highlight innovation in financial products and services. For example, develop specialized institutions for small and micro enterprises, encourage banking financial institutions to expand financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises, etc.; 4. Develop emerging markets, such as the transfer of equity, property rights and financial rights; 5. Highlight the development and management system of local regulatory systems Risk prevention. The first step in Wenzhou's financial system reform is to establish more small and medium-sized banks, especially small and medium-sized banks (village banks) with private capital as the main body. This is not only to solve the problem of loan difficulties for small and micro enterprises, to solve the problem of outlets for private capital, but also to Explore ways to form a diversified financial system.