During the Cultural Revolution, due to the limitation of the understanding of interest rate and the influence of the left ideological trend, interest rate was regarded as a capitalist thing, and interest rate management also developed in the direction of simplifying grades and lowering levels. The regulatory role of interest rates in the national economy continues to weaken, but the system of centralized management of interest rates has not changed.
After 1978, with the establishment of the central position of economic construction, the national economic management gradually changed from physical management to value management, and the regulation mode gradually changed from direct control based on mandatory plans to indirect regulation based on economic means. The importance of interest rate in macro-control of national economy reappears, and the interest rate management system is constantly improved and developed.
1988 10.05 The People's Bank of China issued the Interim Provisions on Strengthening Interest Rate Management, which specifically regulated the interest rate management in the form of departmental regulations for the first time, and initially defined the main position and management scope of the interest rate management of the People's Bank of China. From 65438 to 0990, the People's Bank of China issued the Interim Provisions on Interest Rate Management, which comprehensively defined the scope of responsibilities of the People's Bank of China and the responsibilities of institutions at all levels of the People's Bank of China in interest rate management. At this time, the interest rate management scope of the People's Bank of China covers almost all the management of capital prices and interest rules. While improving the interest rate management system, we actively try to reform the interest rate management system, appropriately expand the floating range of deposit and loan interest rates of financial institutions, and decentralize the floating right of interest rates.
1996 with the establishment of a unified interbank market, the reform of interest rate management system has reached a new level. The interest rate of wholesale business among financial institutions has been gradually liberalized, the interest rate range managed by the People's Bank of China has been continuously reduced, and the types of interest rate management have been continuously simplified; The differential interest rate policies formulated by the People's Bank of China for different types of funds and different industries are gradually decreasing, and the financial function undertaken by interest rate management is gradually weakening, while the flexible macro-control function is continuously enhanced. 1998- 1999 The People's Bank of China has expanded the floating range of interest rates for loans from financial institutions to small and medium-sized enterprises for three consecutive times, unified interest rate floating policies with different maturities and grades, and gradually expanded the pricing power of financial institutions.
1On March 2, 1999, the People's Bank of China revised and issued the Regulations on the Administration of RMB Interest Rate, which emphasized the regulatory effect of interest rate leverage on the national economy, further simplified the types of interest rate management, and clarified the scope of interest rate management of the People's Bank of China and the independent determination of interest rates by financial institutions. Explain clearly the results of the reform of interest rate management system in a standardized form. At present, China's interest rate management is basically carried out within the framework of laws and regulations.
In terms of foreign currency interest rate management, since 1984, the People's Bank of China has authorized the Bank of China to announce the domestic foreign currency deposit and loan interest rates. In 2000, the People's Bank of China reformed the foreign currency interest rate management system, liberalizing the domestic foreign currency loan interest rate and the large deposit interest rate of over US$ 3 million (or equivalent in other foreign currencies), and the small foreign currency deposit interest rate of less than US$ 3 million (or equivalent in other foreign currencies) was announced by the People's Bank of China. In March 2002, the People's Bank of China unified the foreign currency interest rate management policies of Chinese and foreign financial institutions. The small foreign currency deposits of domestic and foreign financial institutions to residents in China will be included in the current interest rate management scope of the People's Bank of China, so as to realize fair treatment of foreign currency interest rate policies of Chinese and foreign financial institutions.
Looking back on the reform process of interest rate management system since 1996, the People's Bank of China has successively liberalized, merged or cancelled 1 14 kinds of local and foreign currency interest rate management. At present, the People's Bank of China still manages 34 kinds of local and foreign currency interest rates. In the future, with the reform of financial institutions and the steady progress of interest rate marketization, the People's Bank of China will continue to improve interest rate management, expand the autonomy of interest rate pricing of financial institutions, and guide interest rates to further play the role of optimizing the allocation of financial resources and regulating macroeconomic operation through indirect regulation by the People's Bank of China.
Necessity of interest rate marketization reform in China
Interest rate is actually the price of funds and the basis of the central bank's monetary policy. In a market economy, capital is the basic element connecting production, sales and consumption. When interest rates rise, funds will flow to banks, leading to a decline in consumption and investment and a slowdown in economic growth. On the contrary, capital will flow backwards, consumption and investment will expand, and economic growth will accelerate. Over the past 20 years of reform and opening-up, China's reform in the field of prices, especially in the field of commodity prices, is obvious to all, but interest rates are still under control.
With the opening of financial market, interest rate marketization has become the main content of financial market reform. Interest rate marketization means that the interest rate level of financial institutions operating and financing in the money market is determined by market supply and demand, including interest rate determination, interest rate transmission, interest rate structure and interest rate management marketization. In fact, it is to hand over the decision-making power of interest rate to financial institutions, which will adjust the interest rate level independently according to the capital situation and the judgment of the financial market trend, and finally form an interest rate system oriented to the central bank's benchmark interest rate, and all kinds of interest rates will maintain reasonable interests and be effectively transmitted layer by layer. The marketization of interest rate is one of the important steps for China's financial industry to move towards the market, and it is also one of the basic signs for the transformation of the national economic operation system to the market economy. In order to realize opening to the outside world and participate in economic and financial globalization, China must comprehensively consider issues such as RMB interest rate, RMB convertibility, exchange rate and capital account opening. If the international capital is completely open and the exchange rate is to be liberalized, it will inevitably require the marketization of RMB interest rate to adjust the exchange rate. Interest rate is the core factor for the financial market to adapt to the open situation. In order to adapt to this open situation, it is inevitable that China's current interest rate system will be marketized due to various external factors.
1. According to international practice. Since 1980s, interest rate marketization has become a trend in the international financial market. The United States successfully marketized interest rates on March 1986, and Japan finally marketized interest rates on June 1994+00. By comparing the practice, experience and lessons of interest rate marketization in the world, it is proved that interest rate marketization plays an important regulatory role in realizing internal and external equilibrium, ensuring the optimal allocation of financial resources and promoting economic growth, and has been adopted by all countries in the world. If China's national economic operation system is to be transformed into a real socialist market economy, it is necessary to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and learn and absorb advanced production methods and management experience from all countries in the world.
2. From the perspective of joining WTO. On the one hand, after China's accession to the WTO, the geographical and customer service restrictions of foreign banks to carry out RMB business will be lifted five years later, and they can operate retail banking business, and all banking business will be completely liberalized. In this way, banks in China will first face unprecedented challenges from foreign banks. After China's entry into WTO, foreign-funded enterprises and banks in China can go to the international capital market for low-cost financing, and some Chinese-funded enterprises can also raise funds from foreign banks, which promotes the integration of local currency and foreign currency, the inflow and outflow of international capital, and increases the difficulty of interest rate control. On the other hand, the reality facing China's banking industry is heavy historical burden, high proportion of non-performing assets and poor profitability. The interest rate control policy implemented by the People's Bank of China and the underdeveloped financial market are not conducive to commercial banks to absorb a large number of deposits and raise funds in the capital market, thus increasing the cost of funds, reducing the marginal effect of funds and losing the stability and reliability of capital sources. Commercial banks implement the statutory benchmark interest rate for deposits and loans determined by the central bank according to the time limit, and the loan interest rate level does not match the loan risk, resulting in an interest rate inversion mechanism-low bank loan interest rate and narrow profit creation space, coupled with the previous high interest rate and the redemption of deposits absorbed by value-preserving savings, resulting in a large deficit in interest payment and many actual losses of banks, which fundamentally restricts the development idea of financial development → financial innovation → capital expansion → capital accumulation → capital re-expansion. Faced with domestic troubles and foreign invasion, it is difficult for China banks to compete with foreign banks in the international capital market after China's entry into WTO. In order to adapt to this open situation, the current interest rate system in China is bound to be market-oriented.
3. From the perspective of foreign exchange management. Theoretically speaking, under the condition of free capital flow, not only should there be no stable spread between domestic and foreign currency interest rates, but it is also difficult to form a stable spread between RMB interest rate, domestic and foreign currency interest rate and international financial market interest rate. First of all, if the domestic foreign currency interest rate is lower than the overseas interest rate, it will inevitably promote the outflow of domestic foreign currency funds. Secondly, the difference between RMB interest rate and foreign currency interest rate at home and abroad will also induce capital conversion between RMB and foreign currency and capital flow at home and abroad, especially the difference between RMB interest rate and local and foreign currency interest rate, which will inevitably induce residents to try to convert their local currency into foreign currency without bearing the cost and risk of capital flight. In this way, it is difficult to have a stable interest rate difference between the local currency interest rate and the local and foreign currency interest rates. Therefore, effective foreign exchange management is one of the important reasons why RMB interest rate, local and foreign currency interest rate and international market interest rate have maintained a large and stable spread in recent years, especially since the outbreak of the Southeast Asian financial crisis. However, foreign exchange control requires considerable costs. International experience shows that there is no long-term effective foreign exchange control policy and measures. Therefore, maintaining a stable spread between local and foreign currencies through foreign exchange control can only be regarded as the product of specific policies in a specific economic development class. With China's imminent accession to the WTO, domestic and foreign capital flows are larger and more complicated, and it may be difficult to achieve satisfactory results by continuing to rely on simple foreign exchange control measures. At this stage, we should seize the opportunity to promote the interest rate marketization reform, not only to narrow the spread between local and foreign currencies, but also to reduce the policy pressure of implementing foreign exchange control, so as to make it possible to actively and steadily open more communication channels between local and foreign currencies.
4. From the perspective of the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises in China (including state-owned small and medium-sized enterprises, township enterprises and private enterprises). ) accounts for an increasing proportion of GDP. Small and medium-sized enterprises play an important role in promoting national economic development, increasing employment, promoting industrial structure adjustment and accelerating industrial upgrading. The central government recently put forward the principle of "national treatment" for small and medium-sized enterprises, which provided convenient conditions for them to raise funds. However, the current interest rate control policy is not conducive to the financing requirements of SMEs. In recent years, although the People's Bank of China has adjusted the floating range of SME loan interest rates, the floating range has not changed because of the expansion of the floating range. The borrowing cost of small and medium-sized enterprises is still much higher than that of large enterprises, which seriously hinders and restricts the normal development of small and medium-sized enterprises. How to overcome this bottleneck, interest rate marketization reform will become a booster for the development and innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises, especially small and medium-sized high-tech enterprises, and interest rate marketization reform will become popular.