After a lapse of more than a year, Huaxia Bank recently handed over an answer sheet: by the end of June, the annual review system of the bank's small and micro enterprise loans had served 489 local small and micro enterprise loan credit customers with a credit amount of 65.438+88 billion yuan and 444 credit customers with a credit amount of 65.438+54 billion yuan.
If these figures are put into small and medium-sized enterprises in Zhejiang, they may be just a drop in the bucket. However, the fire that started a prairie fire began with a glimmer of light. In this land of Zhejiang, a financial innovation that may benefit more small and micro enterprises is surging.
Innovation of repayment method
"The innovation of this repayment method began with the promotion of Shaoxing Banking Supervision Branch," Wu Bin, risk director of the SME Credit Department of Huaxia Bank Shaoxing Branch, told the reporter of Zheshang.
At the beginning of 2065438+2002, under the impetus of Zhejiang Banking Regulatory Bureau and Shaoxing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, Shaoxing Banking Supervision Branch innovatively launched the annual repayment method for small and micro enterprises, aiming at the problem of increasing the repayment pressure of small and micro enterprises by "repaying loans first", taking Huaxia Bank Shaoxing Branch and Shaoxing Bank as the first batch of pilots.
Why choose innovative repayment methods as the starting point to reduce the repayment pressure of small and micro enterprises? Many financial practitioners expressed the same view to the reporter of Zheshang: in the past, the original way of "paying back before lending" brought great pressure to small and micro enterprises. In this regard, small and micro business owners have deep pain.
For a long time, small and micro business owners can be described as people in the "cracks", and the financing problem is the "hardest hit" for business owners: for most small and micro enterprises, bank loans are the most important financing channel and hold the "lifeline" of small and medium-sized enterprises-when self-raised funds are difficult to maintain the sustainable development of enterprises, banks become the "survival place" of enterprises; However, for most banks, small and micro enterprises are not popular credit targets-fragile development, difficult weather and uncertain future-which makes banks wishing for more stability tend to stay away from small and medium-sized enterprises.
Even if financing is obtained, for a long time in the past, the bank's services to small and micro enterprises still have problems such as maturity mismatch and amount mismatch. Wang Wei, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of Finance of Zhejiang University, told Zheshang that when SMEs need financing from banking institutions, they often need long-term and sustained funds to support their long-term development. However, in the past, the traditional working capital loan period was generally set within 1 year; In addition, from the perspective of a cycle of enterprise capital procurement, production, sales and withdrawal, capital is circulating, and what is most needed is a foundation fund.
This means that after the expiration of one year, enterprises that still have capital needs must repay the loan first. If their own cash flow is insufficient, most small and micro enterprises adopt private lending and other means to "borrow turnover".
Some people may wonder: knowing that the loan is due, why don't enterprises "repay the loan first" by financing themselves?
Bai Zhibiao, chairman of Zhejiang Lantian Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. said frankly: "For small and medium-sized enterprises like us, the amount of a single loan is generally within several million yuan to ten million yuan. If you want to repay the loan first, it means that you often have to start shrinking production capacity two or three months in advance, prepare cash and prepare loans due. In this case, our production will all stop. "
Financing is for the long-term development of the company, but the implementation of "paying back before lending" means that SME owners with fragile cash flow have to go through a "shock" every year. "If the economic environment is ok, it will come after a while, but the economic situation has been poor in the past two years. I don't know how many enterprises have fallen on the step of' paying back before lending'." Bai Zhibiao gave a wry smile.
Self-financing is difficult, and "loan turnover" is not a free lunch. The existence of interest space in the process of bank lending has become a major reason for the prevalence of "usury". "Third-party institutions that provide loans to enterprises often charge high interest rates. The monthly interest rate of 6 minutes and 7 minutes is common, and it is too easy to get money. " Mr. Liu, a bank employee, told the reporter of Zheshang, "What business can make such a high profit? For enterprises,' usury' means' drinking poison to quench thirst'. If the bank loan procedure is delayed a little, it is completely blood drawing. " In some cases, enterprises raised repayment funds through private loans, but failed to obtain refinancing for various reasons, leaving only a "dead end".
In order to "repay the loan first", in addition to shrinking production capacity and borrowing in advance, there is another trick, but few business owners are willing to choose: apply to the bank for loan extension unless absolutely necessary. Why don't business owners want to make extended loans? Because this means that enterprises will leave records in the central bank's credit information system, which will affect their credit status and may cast a shadow over their future.
So, is it really necessary to "repay the loan first"? In fact, an internal bank survey shows that more than 90% of small business working capital loans are still paid by banks after maturity.
For small and micro enterprises, what should be a "hematopoietic machine" financing loan may become "life-saving money" because of the loan repayment method with mismatched maturity, which is an important reason why the banking supervision department decided to change the loan repayment method as an innovative way.
So, why is the pilot in Shaoxing, Zhejiang? The reason is simple: as one of the most developed areas of private economy, Shaoxing sample reflects the living conditions of private small and micro enterprises. Under the severe situation of macroeconomic downturn, decreasing domestic demand, rising labor costs and RMB exchange rate, how to solve the financing and operation difficulties of small and micro enterprises is of great significance to Zhejiang banking industry and Zhejiang economic development.
As a result, small and micro enterprises in Shaoxing are fortunate to be the first beneficiaries.
How many banks are innovating?
This financial innovation initiated by Shaoxing, like a breeze initiated at the end of Qingping, spread to a wider field.
"Our goal this year has been basically completed." Wu Bin told Zheshang reporter. According to the original plan, the number of households and credit line of this small enterprise's annual loan products will double compared with last year, which is very close to the target according to the figures at the end of July. By the end of July, this product of Huaxia Bank Shaoxing Branch had been put into use by 370 households, with a credit amount of 65.438+0.27 billion yuan, accounting for more than 654.38+0.4 of the total loan amount. Last April 12, the first annual loan for small and micro enterprises was just issued successfully. Today, this product has gained a good reputation among local small and micro enterprises.
It's just the innovation of repayment method, why can we get the enthusiasm of enterprises? Let's take Huaxia Bank's "annual review system" loan business for small and micro enterprises to explain.
The products issued by Huaxia Bank to small enterprises are divided into working capital loans with two financing periods, and the small enterprises are inspected annually one month before the expiration of the first financing period. Those who pass the annual review automatically enter the second financing period without signing a new loan contract. Among them, the first phase of financing may not return the principal, and the second phase of financing may return the principal as planned or in one lump sum when it expires.
The loan period of this product is changed from the original general 1 year to a maximum of 24 months, and the period can be set according to the customer's business situation and needs; In terms of loan amount, the credit line of exposure risk does not exceed 20 million yuan; As for the loan interest rate that small and micro business owners are most concerned about, this product is the most attractive-the loan interest rate in the first financing period and the second financing period adopts the same fixed interest rate. This means that the product does not charge interest according to the medium and long-term working capital loan.
The above three characteristics are attractive to small and micro business owners. Xie, general manager of Shaoxing Puyi Plastic Industry Co., Ltd. commented on this: "For financial institutions, this product is indeed innovative."
"The repayment method of this product enables small and micro enterprises to apply for annual loans from banks without actually organizing repayment funds before the loan expires. For enterprises, it reduces the time and capital cost required to raise repayment funds, and at the same time reduces the risk of small and micro enterprises participating in private lending due to lending pressure. " Wu Bin said.
Since it was piloted in Shaoxing last April, Huaxia Bank has quickly discovered the potential of this product. In the same year, Huaxia Bank began to promote this product in the whole province, and it was promoted nationwide in April of 20 13. Now, branches of Huaxia Bank in Changzhou, Jiangsu, Chengdu, Sichuan and other places have followed Shaoxing's example and launched this product. Without exception, most of the pilot areas are places where small and micro enterprises gather.
Like Shaoxing, in other areas, this product is also welcomed by business owners. Ruan Yongjiang, Marketing Director of Small Business Department of Huaxia Bank Hangzhou Branch, told Zheshang that at present, the annual loan balance of small and micro enterprises in Hangzhou Branch and the coverage rate of the number of credit customers have reached more than 10%, and the business of single small and micro enterprise customers (excluding platform batch customers) accounts for about 70%. "We will develop and consolidate a group of high-quality small and micro enterprise customers through annual loan review. More than 30% of the new single small and micro enterprise loan is used for the annual loan products. In the future, the proportion of annual loan products and market recognition will be further improved. "
The pilot project of Shaoxing Bank seems to be equally gratifying: it is revealed that the bank has accepted 882 high-quality qualified small and micro enterprises "warehousing" since it founded the "annual inspection factory".
Then, Shanghai Bank, Hangzhou Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and other institutions also launched similar products. The conditions of each bank are different in terms of loan amount, term and interest rate. Xia Zhenjiang, general manager of the Small Business Finance Department of Hangzhou Branch of Bank of Shanghai, told Zheshang that the products of Bank of Shanghai provide working capital loans, trade financing, bill acceptance and discount, letter of guarantee and other local and foreign currency credit services to high-quality small and micro enterprises that meet the conditions of more than four years of establishment, normal repayment sources and good reputation of major shareholders. Its maximum loan amount can reach 20 million yuan and the longest term can reach 3 years. In terms of loan interest rate, the product is calculated at a 3-year interest rate-compared with the current product of Huaxia Bank, the term and interest rate given by Shanghai Bank are different. Xia Zhenjiang said that in the next two years, their goal is to cover 20% of the annual audit products in small and micro enterprises, benefiting about hundreds of small and micro enterprises.
All banks have begun to "start", but according to the statistics obtained by Zheshang reporters, Huaxia Bank is still the "pioneer" in this field, and it is in the forefront of its peers in terms of customer number, credit line and credit line.
"fast" and "slow"
Although the products launched are similar, the steps taken by major banks are different.
"This product is indeed a great innovation for small and micro enterprises, but at present, except for some joint-stock commercial banks, many banking institutions are reluctant to vigorously promote it." Mr. Liu, the aforementioned banking industry insider, said, "At present, Huaxia Bank is moving so fast because small and micro enterprises are their important customer groups. For institutions like the big four banks, even if similar products are implemented, the intensity will not be great-small and micro enterprises are not their most valued customer groups. Similarly, if the region lacks a small and micro enterprise customer base, this business will not develop. "
On the other hand, for the marketing staff of first-line banks, if the original assessment system is maintained, most account managers lack the enthusiasm to develop small and micro enterprises: "For account managers, regardless of the size of the enterprise, the work he does is the same: pre-loan investigation, in-loan review and post-loan inspection spend almost the same energy and time, but the credit lines of large enterprises and small and micro enterprises are completely different. In the past, the standard for evaluating account managers was often the credit line used. In this case, it is equally laborious. Being a small customer is far less profitable than developing a big customer. Who wants to be a small customer? " Mr. Liu explained this.
This may mean that the annual audit product is not only a major innovation of loan enterprises, but also requires banking institutions to start an internal innovation: change the original assessment method and truly tilt towards serving small and micro enterprises.
The expectation of the economic situation also makes some banking institutions relatively cautious. Mr. Liu told the reporter of Zheshang that because he is not optimistic about the economic trend in the second half of the year, his bank does not intend to increase its development efforts among small and micro enterprise customers. After all, "small and micro enterprises always die the fastest when a wave strikes."
Various contradictions and realities make the innovation pace of major banks slow and fast. The fastest, such as Huaxia Bank, successfully issued the first annual loan business for small and micro enterprises 20 days after Shaoxing Banking Supervision Branch officially issued a document to inform the pilot; In some banking institutions, this product has not become the main product, and the business development is only a few.
From this point of view, the dilemma of "difficult loans and repayment" for small and micro enterprises seems to be just a problem.