Wang Xingping, special author/article author of this magazine
City commercial banks are the main body of small and medium-sized banks. Their predecessor was the urban credit cooperatives established in the 1980s. At that time, the original intention of establishing such micro-financial institutions was to provide financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises and provide financial vitality for local economic development. However, over the past 30 years, there have been many problems in the development of city commercial banks, so that they have become an unstable substitute in the development of China's financial industry.
Recently, due to the takeover of Baoshang Bank, the operating status and development strategic positioning of city commercial banks and even a number of small and medium-sized commercial banks have been pushed to the whirlpool center of public opinion.
Be stronger and bigger.
The development of financial industry does not need to consume resources, nor will it pollute the environment. It is an important industry to increase employment and contribute to tax revenue. After the reform and opening up, Shenzhen Special Economic Zone has developed from a border town to a first-tier city with a population of 12 million, and the development of the financial industry has undoubtedly contributed. Today, the financial industry contributes about 20% to Shenzhen's GDP.
Faced with the successful experience of Shenzhen, governments all over the country have followed suit, and countless cities have proposed to make Shenzhen an international, national and regional financial center. It is in this understanding that Baoshang Bank developed.
As the website of the contractor bank said, it has become a banner of Baotou's economic development. Baotou steel used to own it, but today it depends on the contractor. At the beginning of 20 18, a leader of Baotou city praised the bank after inspecting it, saying that its tax contribution was huge, which strongly supported the local economic and social development and became a new business card for Baotou city and even Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Local governments are keen on developing the financial industry. In addition to increasing taxes and employment, the most important thing is that local banks can gather funds from all over the country to their headquarters, providing a steady stream of power for local economic development. The regulatory authorities are also keen to highlight political achievements and promote the rapid development of the financial industry.
However, blindly pursuing banks to become bigger and stronger will not and are not keen on small and micro enterprise loans.
For example, a bank lends 1 100 million yuan to a large enterprise; Or split 1 100 million into 100 shares, each of which is lent to 1 00 small enterprises respectively. Risks, costs and even benefits are very different.
As far as risk is concerned, the loan risk of large enterprises is relatively small, while that of small enterprises is not.
The operating costs of pre-loan investigation, in-loan review and even post-loan inspection are also very different. Loans to large enterprises and corresponding lending procedures can be completed at one time. However, if you give 100 enterprises, the above-mentioned operation processes will be operated more than 100 times respectively, especially for small enterprises, which are extremely complicated and require a lot of manpower and material resources more than 100 times.
In the end, it is incomparable in income. Experience shows that the bad debt rate of SME loans is more than 30% higher than that of large enterprises.
Cross-regional management
In 2006, the China Banking Regulatory Commission issued the Measures for the Implementation of Administrative Licensing Matters of Chinese Commercial Banks and the Measures for the Management of Branches of City Commercial Banks in Different Places, which opened the prelude to the large-scale establishment of inter-provincial branches of city commercial banks. After that, in just four years, 78 city commercial banks across the country achieved cross-regional development, and * * * set up 300 off-site branches and even overseas representative offices, including 42 off-site branches in 30 provinces. These city commercial banks with strong development impulse and quick action are represented by banks in developed areas such as Shanghai Bank, Bank of Beijing and Bank of Jiangsu, but there are also some commercial banks from third-tier cities, such as Baoshang Bank.
However, the good time for city commercial banks to become bigger and stronger was reversed at 20 1 1. The CBRC began to strictly control the cross-regional operation of city commercial banks, and repeatedly said that it did not encourage city commercial banks to develop into national banks across regions.
At the beginning of its establishment, Baoshang Bank was determined to be a big national bank. Before the CBRC closed its doors to examine and approve institutions in different places, it set up four branches in Shenzhen, Beijing, Chengdu and Ningbo, and laid out four branches in the east, west, north and south of China. After CBRC stopped approving the establishment of inter-provincial branches of city commercial banks, Baoshang Bank set up more than 30 village banks in 18 provinces and cities.
Why do city commercial banks operate across regions? First of all, local and foreign governments worship the establishment of financial centers; Secondly, it is euphemistically called learning from the experience of bank management in advanced regions and making contributions to local economic development; Third, the most important thing is to absorb local deposits and invest in bank headquarters. Therefore, the essence of cross-regional operation of banks is to plunder funds from different places.
The internal branches of big banks are divided into "bad loan banks" and "bad deposit banks", and their internal capital distribution rights have always been highly concentrated in the capital management department of their head offices. In order to maximize profits, the use of credit funds raised by its outlets must be invested in coastal provinces and cities with developed economy, rapid GDP growth and low risk. In this way, the deposits absorbed by regional banks in relatively backward areas are transferred to economically developed provinces, which makes the economy of relatively backward areas that are already eager for credit funds lose more blood and risks follow.
For example, Guangxi Beibu Gulf Bank was once the No.1 inter-bank business of city commercial banks in China, and published an editorial in Guangxi Daily, highly praising Beibu Gulf Bank for lending a lot for Guangxi's economic development. However, the performance and scale supported by interbank lending and off-balance-sheet business have changed rapidly. Its total assets fell to 90.29 billion yuan in 20 13, leaving only 85.6 billion yuan in 20 14, shrinking by 70% in the past two years. In 20 14 years, the bank's net profit was10.30 billion yuan, which was about 90% lower than the peak data. In this year, Beibu Gulf Bank became the third lowest profit bank among 120 banks in China, and was forced to introduce major shareholder restructuring to escape from danger.
Similarly, according to the data of the 20 16 annual report, although Baoshang Bank has a nationwide layout, its main loan area is Inner Mongolia, where its headquarters is located, with an amount of1/kloc-0.06 billion yuan, accounting for 7 1. 1% of the total loans. The source of such high capital cost does not match the investment in low-growth areas, and the disadvantages of cross-regional operation of city commercial banks are obvious, which doomed the exposure of their credit risks to be inevitable.
On the other hand, most of the city commercial banks that have tasted the sweetness in cross-regional operations come from first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, because the economic growth of their registered places has provided rich returns for their capital investment. This has also created a pattern in which the strong are always strong and the weak are always weak. They attract foreign investment by opening branches all over the country, which makes the weak third-and fourth-tier cities more anaemic and makes the slow-developing economy worse.
The old saying of "loan-to-deposit ratio"
In the past, China's Law on Commercial Banks stipulated that the loan-to-deposit ratio of commercial banks should be restricted, that is, the ratio of loan assets to deposit liabilities in the bank balance sheet, also known as the "loan-to-deposit ratio", was set at 75%.
"loan-to-deposit ratio" supervision index is an important means to prevent bank liquidity risk. The direct cause of the collapse of most enterprises is the lack of liquidity. This applies not only to ordinary enterprises, but also to banks. According to the public information of China Banking Regulatory Commission, 20 12.35 trillion yuan, the asset scale of national city commercial banks reached110.54 trillion yuan, the loan scale was 4 trillion yuan, and the liquidity risk was 34.66% in loan-to-deposit ratio.
However, in recent years, under the bluff of some experts, in August of 20 15, the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) voted to amend the Law on Commercial Banks, deleting 75% of the regulatory indicators of "loan-to-deposit ratio" and decided to implement it from 20 15+ 1 year 10. Shang Fulin, then chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said: The cancellation of loan-to-deposit ratio's regulatory indicators will help improve the lending capacity of China's banking sector. However, in the face of the current diversification of banking sources and asset forms, how to strengthen liquidity risk management in the future will be a big challenge.
Since then, many small and medium-sized banks have unscrupulously increased their lending, operated extensively, and gained benefits by scale, and their leverage ratio has been rising day by day, which contains increasingly serious liquidity risks. After 20 16, the loan ratio of city commercial banks rose as a whole, reaching more than 80% quickly. Without basic deposits, they had to borrow from the interbank market. According to the statistics of the central bank, the balance of interbank deposit certificates found at the end of 2065438+2008 was 9964 billion yuan, and the circulation of city commercial banks and banks with ratings below AA accounted for two thirds, reaching 65396 billion yuan.
Take the behavior of the contractor bank as an example. As of February, 2065,438+0,2065,438+06, its debt structure is very unstable, with deposits of only 654.38+0936 billion yuan, but interbank loans are as high as 730.2 billion yuan, including: central bank loans of 654.38+022 billion yuan and interbank deposits of 765.438+. On the asset side, loans151800 million yuan and accounts receivable1221000 million yuan, totaling 273.9 billion yuan. The loan-to-deposit ratio of corporate financing to deposits is as high as 144.6438+0%.
The loan and deposit of small and medium-sized banks are as high as this, and there are actually huge liquidity risks. According to the 20 16 annual report issued by Baoshang Bank, by the end of that year, the total deposit of Baoshang Bank was 193643 billion yuan, and the total loan was 15 1000 billion yuan, which was as high as 80% in loan-to-deposit ratio. What's even more outrageous is that Wande data shows that as of the third quarter of 20 17, the total assets of Baoshang Bank were 576.2 billion yuan, the total loans were 208/kloc-0.00 billion yuan, and the total deposits were 223.5 billion yuan. loan-to-deposit ratio has climbed to 93%.
In just three years or so, people in the industry immediately worried about the challenge of liquidity risk.
Recently, the China Banking Regulatory Commission announced financial management rules. 3 1 commercial banks have announced plans to set up wealth management subsidiaries. At present, the financial subsidiaries of eight banks have been approved by the CBRC.
Perhaps, clearly separating wealth management products from bank deposits, and separating the subjects and commercial institutions that issue wealth management products from commercial banks that operate deposit lending have actually created preconditions for re-establishing the "loan-to-deposit ratio" supervision index of commercial banks.
Lack of supervision and coordination
In recent years, some city commercial banks have been kidnapped and hollowed out by major shareholders. Even Wang Zhaoxing, vice chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission, publicly stated at the 20 17 annual meeting of city commercial banks that the corporate governance and risk control of city commercial banks are lagging behind, leading to many explicit or implicit financial risks. Some city commercial banks have weak corporate governance ability. The major shareholders of some banks regard banks as cash machines and withdraw bank funds through trust, asset management and repeated pledge of shares. There are frequent illegal cases such as bill business, financial management "flying orders" and "radish chapters" in city commercial banks.
In fact, the problem of the development of small and medium-sized banks is not who will hold shares, but whether the bank's business philosophy is law-abiding. According to the latest information disclosed, Baoshang Bank holds 89% of the shares of "Tomorrow Department" group company, which has occupied bank funds for a long time. But on the surface, all this is in line with laws and regulations. According to the annual report issued by Baoshang Bank, the average share of its major shareholders in the bank is about 20%. At the same time, in the loan data published in the 20 16 annual report, we can't see the problem that bank funds are inclined to major shareholders. Therefore, how to strengthen effective supervision, implement penetrating supervision, focus on major shareholders of banks through phenomena, prevent them from abusing their rights to empty banks, and investigate and deal with illegal use of non-owned funds to buy shares, hold shares on their behalf, and abuse shareholders' rights to harm the interests of banks. It is an important task for the current banking regulatory authorities to prevent and resolve financial risks.
Baoshang Bank is a new star in city commercial banks. In its official website, we can still see hundreds of awards it has won since its establishment 20 years ago. These winners include the central government, local departments, financial regulatory agencies and international organizations, and their praise is almost endless. What are the safest, most reliable, most trustworthy and most competitive titles are also endless.
What is credit risk? In short, it means borrowing money and not paying it back. However, banks are credit and monetary enterprises. A bank can't produce an annual report for two years in a row, and other financial institutions don't know much about its assets and liabilities, but they dare to lend it. What does this mean? There are many procedures for capital lending, but compliance audit and risk assessment are nominal or non-existent. As far as things are concerned, either the interest rate is high or the commission is heavy, but isn't this an important clue for the regulatory authorities to carry out financial anti-corruption?
The People's Bank of China is the competent department of payment and settlement, which has the functions of "supervising and managing the interbank lending market, interbank bond market, interbank bill market, interbank foreign exchange market, gold market and related derivatives transactions in the above markets" and "formulating payment and settlement rules and being responsible for the normal operation of the national payment and settlement system". The function of China Banking Regulatory Commission is to "take over or promote the restructuring of banking financial institutions that have or may have a credit crisis that seriously affects the legitimate rights and interests of depositors and other customers".
By contrast, the former finds risks and the latter deals with them. However, business risk discovery is out of touch with administrative supervision and disposal. For example, the regulatory authorities can tolerate that Baoshang Bank has not published the annual report data for two consecutive years, and the website of Baoshang Bank still hangs the report that the bank won the "Best Financial Technology safety award"; The Bank was also rated as "one of the first batch of seven city commercial banks with the least risk (i.e. tier 2) assessed by relevant regulatory authorities".
The disharmony between the actual business operation supervision and administrative supervision has caused the lack of information between the regulatory agencies, or one of the reasons why contracted banks have been able to keep good relations with the financial regulatory authorities for many years, and the risks have accumulated more and more, which is the main reason why bank operations are unsustainable.
The financial industry is a virtual economy, which does not directly create wealth, but participates in the distribution of social products, allowing its assets to expand indefinitely or even burst, which is serious damage to the economy and society. At present, the high loan-to-deposit ratio of small and medium-sized banks leads to a serious shortage of capital adequacy ratio, and the capital adequacy ratio is greatly reduced by expanding liabilities to expand the asset scale. At the end of the third quarter of 20 17, the core tier-one capital adequacy ratio of Baoshang Bank was less than 7%, which was far from the goal that the tier-one capital adequacy ratio required by the regulatory authorities must reach 8. 1%. Therefore, the consequence of asset expansion that makes small and medium-sized commercial banks expand indefinitely after the "loan-to-deposit ratio" index is risk accumulation. At present, it is not enough for financial supervision departments to only use laws and regulations related to capital adequacy ratio to restrain this infinite expansion of bank credit.
After the contractor bank incident, a group of small and medium-sized banks experienced liquidity crisis. The central bank announced that on June 4th, it decided to increase the rediscount quota of 200 billion yuan and the standing loan facility (SLF) quota of 1000 billion yuan to strengthen the liquidity support for small and medium-sized banks and maintain their liquidity.
In fact, it is an expedient measure for the central bank's special fund to help small and medium-sized banks with blood transfusion, and it has a long way to go.