First, China's rural financial system status and problems
(A) the status quo of rural financial system in China
After more than 20 years of reform and development, China has initially formed a rural financial system with rural credit cooperatives as the main body, Agricultural Bank and Agricultural Development Bank participating in providing credit, and China People's Insurance Company and China United Property Insurance Company participating in providing agricultural insurance services, which has played a positive role in supporting rural economic development.
By the end of 2004, the loan balance of rural credit cooperatives in China was 1923784 billion yuan, accounting for 1085% of the total loans of financial institutions, of which agricultural loans (including loans from township enterprises) were14492 billion yuan, accounting for 56.79% of the total agricultural loans of financial institutions; The balance of agricultural loans issued by China Agricultural Bank is 355,654.38+62 million yuan, accounting for1.396% of the total agricultural loans of financial institutions; The balance of various loans of the Agricultural Development Bank was 765.438+08.983 billion yuan, accounting for 4.05% of the loans of financial institutions, including 7009.165438+000 million yuan of grain, cotton and oil purchase loans, accounting for 27.56% of all agricultural loans of financial institutions.
In 2004, China's agricultural insurance * * * realized premium income of 377 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 88 million yuan, down 65,438+08.86%.
(B) China rural financial system problems
1. The development of rural finance is relatively backward, which can not meet the needs of supporting and serving agriculture, countryside and farmers, and a large number of loan demands can not be met, which restricts economic development and farmers' income increase to some extent. At present, the loan satisfaction rate is seriously insufficient in the following five aspects: First, large-scale farmers' loans. For large agricultural households, agricultural micro-loans of several thousand yuan have been difficult to meet the capital needs of production and operation, ranging from tens of thousands of yuan to hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan. For these large households, due to the lack of qualified mortgaged real estate, banks and credit cooperatives find it difficult to grasp the risks. Second, SME loans. Due to the low economic benefit, low technology content, unreasonable product structure and backward management level, it is difficult for county SMEs to meet the requirements of bank loan support. The third is the construction funds of small towns. Due to the lack of supporting construction funds, financial institutions are only tentatively involved in this field, and credit investment is very weak. Fourth, rural infrastructure funds, loan recovery is not guaranteed, and banks are reluctant to lend.
2. The assets of rural financial institutions are of poor quality and lack the ability of sustainable operation. Rural credit cooperatives generally have the problems of heavy historical burden, poor credit quality and large loss area and amount. 55% of credit cooperatives are insolvent and have great payment risks. At the end of 2002, the non-performing loans of rural credit cooperatives in China were 5 147 billion yuan, accounting for 37% of the total loans. At the same time, the share capital of rural credit cooperatives is generally seriously insufficient, the property rights are unclear, the corporate governance structure is imperfect, and the internal management responsibilities are not implemented. Agricultural Bank of China is also facing the problems of poor asset quality and serious capital adequacy ratio. The state has taken a series of measures, including issuing special treasury bonds to enrich capital and divesting non-performing loans, but the amount and proportion of non-performing loans of ABC are still high, and its ability to continue to operate is insufficient. The loss of the purchase loan of Agricultural Development Bank is large and serious, and the sustainable development is also affected.
3. Rural capital outflow is serious.
First of all, with the deepening of the financial system reform, the pace of structural adjustment of state-owned commercial banks has accelerated, and they have begun to implement a strategic retreat from the county economy. Starting from 1998, China Agricultural Bank, China Construction Bank, China Industrial and Commercial Bank and China Bank * * * merged 3 100 institutions at or below the county level and obtained the loan authority. The original credit, settlement, collection and payment services have been greatly reduced, and the functions of county outlets have shrunk. At the same time, the credit business of commercial banks has shifted to central cities, and the loans to rural areas are limited to large-scale infrastructure, supporting funds from national debt and ecological construction. The financial services to farmers' agricultural production and small and medium-sized enterprises have shrunk, resulting in a serious outflow of rural funds through commercial banks.
Secondly, postal savings take advantage of the characteristics of many outlets and going deep into rural areas, absorbing a large number of rural savings and transferring them to the People's Bank of China, resulting in a large outflow of rural funds. Although since August 2003, the Postal Savings Office has started to operate new deposits independently, it is difficult to return to the countryside because all the funds are collected by the General Administration and there is no effective incentive. In 2004, postal savings increased deposits and other funds 180754 billion yuan. More than 50% come from the county and below. In terms of capital utilization, 98.63% was used for interbank deposits and securities investment, and did not return to the countryside.
Thirdly, in the commercialization reform, the operation of rural credit cooperatives tends to be profit-making, and rural credit cooperatives have been non-agricultural. A lot of money flows to cities, and some even invest in the stock market through the entrusted financing of securities companies' national debt.
4. The role of agricultural insurance in agricultural production risk management has not been effectively played.
At present, the loss of agricultural disasters in China mainly depends on the way of disaster subsidies provided by the state, which shows the problems of insufficient assistance to farmers and inefficient use of financial funds in practice. The internationally accepted agricultural insurance system allowed by WTO rules has not been established in China, and the agricultural insurance business has been shrinking year by year, and its role in agricultural production risk management has not been effectively played. Due to the stagnant development of agricultural insurance business, agricultural production risks cannot be dispersed, which restricts the enthusiasm of financial institutions to issue agricultural loans.
5. Agricultural loan risk sharing mechanism and credit guarantee system have not been established, which can not meet the requirements of bank risk management.
Mainly manifested in: First, it is difficult to choose collateral. The assets of agriculture, forestry and other industries supported by agricultural loans are mostly agricultural products, products in process and forestry resources. If it is used as loan collateral, it is naturally risky. Second, it is difficult for leading enterprises to find guarantees. Many leading enterprises are the largest enterprises in local rural areas, and it is difficult to find suitable enterprises to provide guarantees for them. Third, enterprise loan guarantees in poor areas are difficult to implement. Fourth, it is difficult for farmers to apply for large loans to provide corresponding mortgage guarantees.
Second, the causes of problems in China's rural financial system
From the practice of developing countries, in the dual economic structure, the low comparative benefit of agriculture and rural economy is an important reason for rural capital outflow and weak financial system. Our country is no exception. However, it should also be noted that China's inappropriate rural financial development strategy in the past led to the lack of vitality in the rural financial market and the lack of financial support for the transfer of labor from the agricultural sector to the industrial sector, which made the problems of China's rural financial system more complicated. Specifically, the past rural financial development strategy has influenced the rural financial system from the following aspects:
(A) Government-run finance leads to higher risk and poor sustainable development ability of rural financial institutions.
For many years, rural finance has followed the development path of government-run finance, commercial banks are state-owned, rural credit cooperatives and closed rural cooperative foundations are nominally cooperatives, but in fact they are also government-run financial institutions. Practice has proved that in a market lacking competition, government-run finance can easily lead to low efficiency of rural financial institutions, imperfect operation mechanism, inability to become an independent subject to operate independently and take risks, lack of flexibility to adapt to the market, and lack of motivation and means to strengthen risk control, which will also lead to administrative intervention and insider control of financial institutions, and is also not conducive to enhancing borrowers' repayment awareness. This is the main reason for the formation of non-performing loans.
(B) excessive control of rural financial markets leads to a high degree of monopoly and inefficiency in rural financial markets.
Over-supervision of the rural financial market by the regulatory authorities for many years is manifested in the high entry threshold of the rural financial market, the simple attitude of cracking down on and suppressing private finance, and the inability of new financial institutions to enter, resulting in a high degree of monopoly in the rural financial market and a serious lag in financial services. In recent years, with the gradual withdrawal of commercial banks from the rural financial market, rural cooperative foundations have been cleared, and the monopoly position of rural credit cooperatives in the rural financial market has been further strengthened. Monopoly leads to inefficiency and lack of vitality in rural financial markets, which reduces the social welfare of borrowers.
(C) the regulatory approach does not adapt to the characteristics of rural financial institutions
First of all, the development of rural credit cooperatives has not been regulated by special cooperative finance laws and regulations for decades, which is an important reason why rural credit cooperatives deviate from the essence of cooperative finance. At the same time, the lack of regulatory laws and regulations on the establishment and operation of cooperative financial institutions also inhibits the standardization and development of voluntary cooperative financial institutions.
Secondly, the characteristics of small legal persons in rural financial institutions have not been fully considered, and corresponding laws and regulations have been formulated to encourage the development of small and medium-sized commercial financial institutions close to rural areas and farmers.
Thirdly, private professional microfinance institutions are registered in the civil affairs department and have not been clearly defined as legal financial institutions. They do not have the financing qualification of general economic entities, nor can they raise funds from financial institutions to expand their business.
Due to the lack of laws and regulations aimed at the characteristics of rural financial institutions, the regulatory authorities lack the regulatory basis for the establishment and operation of new rural financial institutions, lack the confidence and determination to solve the problem of rural capital demand through market mechanisms, and can only solve the problem through excessive supervision and government arrangements, resulting in a serious shortage of competitors in rural financial markets and underdeveloped market mechanisms.
(D) The lack of state support restricts the strength and effectiveness of rural financial institutions in supporting agriculture, countryside and farmers.
Agricultural risks are high, farmers' ability to resist risks is weak, and the comparative benefits of rural economy are low. It is necessary for the state to give necessary support and compensation and guide rural financial institutions to provide services. However, in the past, the state's support for rural finance was not in place.
First, the financial supply of rural basic public goods such as education, medical care and roads is insufficient, which is not conducive to improving the market environment of rural finance and improving the comparative interests of rural economy. It also leads to some local governments crowding out financial resources when providing public goods and forming non-performing assets of financial institutions.
Second, the business boundary of rural policy finance is too narrow. Agricultural Development Bank's business scope is limited to grain, cotton and oil reserves, and its support areas need to be expanded. However, some economic activities with public welfare in rural areas have no commercial credit support, and there is a gap in credit supply.
The third is to encourage commercial financial institutions to support agriculture, rural areas and farmers. The state has not taken effective measures and its support is not enough. The outstanding performance is that the policy orientation of agricultural insurance has not been clear, and the policy agricultural insurance system has not yet been established. Natural disasters are the main risks faced by farmers. Because the agricultural insurance system has not been established, farmers' agricultural production risks can not be guaranteed, which inhibits the enthusiasm of financial institutions to lend to farmers. In addition, the state has not taken substantive and effective measures to encourage and guide commercial banks to issue agricultural loans, including supporting the establishment of a guarantee system to spread the credit risk of rural financial institutions and preferential tax policies.
Three, some thoughts on improving the rural financial system
(A) the overall idea of improving the rural financial system
The fundamental reason for the problems in China's rural financial system is that the rural financial market lacks vitality due to government-run finance and excessive regulation, and it is not suitable for rural characteristics in terms of organizational system, property rights model, service mode and supervision policy. In order to make finance play its due role in supporting agriculture, countryside and farmers, we must make major adjustments to the financial system and focus on building a competitive rural financial market. Such a financial market should be dominated by commercial finance, with the participation of cooperative finance, the effective return of funds and the support and guidance of national policies.
First, the core problem of China's rural financial system is that the rural financial market mechanism is immature, and some capital needs that could have obtained commercial loans through market channels cannot be met; Secondly, the activity of non-governmental financial activities shows that there is a strong demand for commercial finance in rural areas, and commercial finance has a broad space for development. The low default rate of small loans of rural credit cooperatives fully shows that the sustainable development of commercial finance can be achieved as long as the mechanism is properly designed; Third, fully developing commercial finance is the premise of building a competitive rural financial market.
To fully develop commercial finance, first, on the basis of clear property rights, reform rural credit cooperatives into small and medium-sized commercial financial institutions in counties; The second is to guide and encourage the Agricultural Bank to issue agricultural loans and establish its competitive advantage in the rural financial market; Third, cultivate rural microfinance organizations and improve the supervision methods of microfinance organizations; Fourth, under the premise of strictly controlling social risks, it is allowed to set up various financial institutions; The fifth is to establish a deposit insurance system for rural financial institutions. Rural credit cooperatives, agricultural banks, microfinance organizations and other financial institutions should form a competitive situation.
Cooperative finance is an effective means for disadvantaged groups to solve the problem of capital demand through mutual assistance under the condition of market economy. Encourage non-governmental forces to set up cooperative financial institutions spontaneously, and the state should formulate laws and regulations on cooperative finance to guide and support the development of cooperative financial institutions.
The key to the effective return of funds is to solve the problem of the agricultural bank and other financial institutions putting funds into the countryside and the return of postal savings funds.
The state should increase its support for rural finance. First, it is necessary to broaden the policy business scope of the Agricultural Development Bank and solve the problems of large-scale loans, high risks and long payback period in the rural financial market, and commercial finance is unwilling to intervene; The second is to establish a rural poverty alleviation micro-loan guarantee fund to solve the problem of micro-capital demand of poor people in rural financial markets; Thirdly, the policy agricultural insurance system should be gradually established and improved by combining top-down and bottom-up methods; The fourth is to provide tax policy support for commercial financial institutions to issue agricultural loans.
(B) the full development of rural commercial finance
1. Deepen the reform of rural credit cooperatives and transform them into small and medium-sized commercial financial institutions at the county level.
(1) Overall Evaluation of Deepening Reform of Rural Credit Cooperatives
At present, the deepening reform pilot with the reform of property right system and management system of rural credit cooperatives as the core content is under way. However, judging from the situation reflected by various places, there are still some problems.
First of all, it remains to be seen whether local rural credit cooperatives can achieve the purpose of clarifying property rights, improving corporate governance and transforming operating mechanisms by increasing capital and shares. There are many reasons. For example, the purpose of enterprises and individuals to invest in rural credit cooperatives is to obtain the convenience and qualification of loans, and it has not played a role in the governance of rural credit cooperatives; The equity of rural credit cooperatives is highly dispersed, which leads to insider control; In order to meet the requirements of capital adequacy ratio and reduce the rate of non-performing assets, some localities have adopted some irregular practices, such as promising to pay interest and dividends on shares, allotment of shares by rural credit cooperatives, and compulsory apportionment of shares.
Secondly, the mode of provincial cooperative association will deprive rural credit cooperatives of their operational autonomy. From the perspective of local plans, provincial cooperatives generally exercise the right to examine and appoint the main managers of rural credit cooperatives, and guide and urge rural credit cooperatives to establish and implement various rules and regulations. Although provincial credit cooperatives and rural credit cooperatives are legal persons, they will actually form a unified legal person of provincial credit cooperatives, and rural credit cooperatives may lose their independent legal person status and become de facto state-owned financial institutions, rather than market entities operating independently at their own risk.
Third, rural credit cooperatives have a trend of non-agriculture. Judging from the understanding, some places tend to make rural credit cooperatives bigger. Although expanding rural credit cooperatives can enhance the ability of fund allocation within its jurisdiction, it will also lead to the non-agricultural operation of rural credit cooperatives, which is not conducive to the support of rural credit cooperatives for "agriculture, rural areas and farmers".
(2) Opinions on further deepening the reform of rural credit cooperatives.
Practice shows that rural credit cooperatives no longer have the possibility of being transformed into cooperative financial institutions, but the role of being transformed into policy financial institutions will overlap with the existing policy financial institutions, so rural credit cooperatives can be considered to be transformed into small and medium-sized commercial financial institutions in the county.
In terms of feasibility, considering the characteristics of internal control of rural credit cooperatives, it is easier to be accepted and supported by the internal staff of rural credit cooperatives when it is transformed into a commercial financial institution than a cooperative financial institution. In addition, in the property rights reform of clarifying property rights and increasing capital and shares, the internal staff shares of rural credit cooperatives, including management shares, account for a considerable proportion, which laid the property rights foundation for the restructuring of rural credit cooperatives into commercial financial institutions. It should be noted that rural credit cooperatives are generally faced with the problem of losses and losses. Even if part (50%) can be absorbed through the support of the central bank in this reform, the remaining losses will need to be absorbed for many years. This is an important factor that restricts the reform of rural credit cooperatives, making it impossible to achieve the reform in one step, and it also needs further policy support from the state.
On serving agriculture, countryside and farmers. All parties will worry that after the rural credit cooperatives are transformed into commercial financial institutions, they will weaken their support for agriculture, rural areas and farmers, just like the four major state-owned commercial banks. Such concerns are not unreasonable, but as long as the mechanism is properly designed, such as strictly controlling the size of institutions, formulating community reinvestment laws, giving preferential treatment in taxation, etc., the transformed rural credit cooperatives will play an active role in serving agriculture, rural areas and farmers.
Sustainable management of rural credit cooperatives in remote and backward areas after restructuring. All parties will worry that rural credit cooperatives can not continue to operate after the restructuring because of the low economic and population concentration, large service radius and high service cost of financial institutions in remote and backward areas. This concern is justified. However, it should be noted that even if it is not restructured into a commercial financial institution, rural credit cooperatives cannot survive according to the existing model. Therefore, while allowing local rural credit cooperatives to merge and reorganize according to commercial principles, we should develop real cooperative finance in these areas and vigorously develop private microfinance business. In addition, policy finance should also play a more active role.
The concrete mode design of rural credit cooperatives' restructuring into commercial financial institutions. First, rural credit cooperatives should be transformed into small and medium-sized financial institutions, and the scale should not be too large. It is suggested that rural credit cooperatives should be reformed by county as a unit, which can not only achieve certain scale benefits, but also allocate funds within the county and promote the optimal allocation of resources. Second, the transformation of rural credit cooperatives should be combined with the digestion of losses, and there is a time schedule. We can consider combining tax relief (such as business tax relief) of rural credit cooperatives with loss absorption. If the business improves and can absorb the losses, it can enjoy tax incentives to urge rural credit cooperatives to get rid of historical burdens as soon as possible and create conditions for restructuring. Third, it is necessary to combine the formulation of the Community Reinvestment Law to force rural credit cooperatives to provide agricultural loans with a deposit of not less than a certain percentage. Fourth, we should improve the positive incentive mechanism for the reform of rural credit cooperatives, relax the guarantee and mortgage conditions for rural credit cooperatives with better implementation of reform measures, perfect corporate governance structure, greatly improved operating conditions and greater benefits, and take measures such as early recovery of loans for rural credit cooperatives with incomplete or irregular reforms. The fifth is to transform the function of the provincial association into a deposit insurance institution of local rural financial institutions with regulatory responsibilities.
2. The Agricultural Bank should continue to play the role of supporting agriculture and serving rural areas.
Considering that the Agricultural Bank has a huge organization and many management levels, neither the cost of information collection nor the flexibility of operation can be compared with small and medium-sized financial institutions in the community, and there are inherent disadvantages, so don't expect too much from the Agricultural Bank to support agriculture, countryside and farmers. However, it is necessary for the Agricultural Bank to properly maintain its presence in the county. On the one hand, for the Agricultural Bank, it can establish a competitive advantage in the subdivided financial market. On the other hand, the leading enterprises of agricultural industrialization in rural areas also need a lot of credit funds, which cannot be met by small and medium-sized financial institutions such as rural credit cooperatives and microfinance organizations, and need the support of big banks.
3. Cultivate rural microfinance organizations
In addition to continuing to run the rural microfinance business of rural credit cooperatives, we should also encourage and cultivate rural microfinance organizations. First of all, we should vigorously develop private professional microfinance institutions. For microfinance institutions that lend or borrow capital but don't absorb deposits, because of their small externalities, the regulatory authorities can implement record management without careful supervision, but they should focus on monitoring their sources of funds to prevent them from absorbing deposits from evolving into deposit institutions. At the same time, strictly limit the number of shareholders to prevent them from absorbing deposits in disguised form through public offering. For institutions that operate normally and can achieve sustainable management, they can be allowed. Second, give certain tax policy support to microfinance institutions; The third is to study the practice of introducing wholesale loans from agricultural banks and postal savings into microfinance organizations and increase the sources of funds for microfinance organizations.
4. Reduce the access threshold of rural financial markets and develop various small and medium-sized financial institutions.
We should aim at developing county economy and activating county financial activities, lower the entry threshold of county financial market, develop and cultivate private financial institutions, relax the restrictions on private funds entering the financial industry, attract private funds to set up various rural small and medium-sized financial institutions, and focus on setting up small and medium-sized commercial banks in counties. The development of private small and medium-sized financial institutions can be combined with the reorganization of the Agricultural Bank of China to transfer and merge county-level institutions, allowing private funds to buy the county-level branches of the reorganized Agricultural Bank of China.
5. Establish a deposit insurance system for rural financial institutions.
In order to create a fair competition environment for all rural commercial financial institutions and establish a market exit mechanism, a deposit insurance system for rural financial institutions should be established. The specific proposal is to turn the provincial association into the deposit insurance fund management institution of provincial rural financial institutions to insure the deposits of rural small and medium-sized commercial financial institutions such as rural credit cooperatives. The proposed national deposit insurance fund will reinsurance the deposit insurance funds of provincial rural financial institutions. The deposit insurance funds of rural financial institutions come from the premiums of rural financial institutions, and the initial funds can be shared by the central and local governments. The deposit insurance fund management institutions of provincial rural financial institutions can bear certain regulatory responsibilities. For problematic rural financial institutions, measures such as timely notification to the regulatory authorities and cancellation of new savings deposit insurance can be taken to enhance the timeliness of dealing with problematic financial institutions.
(C) re-cultivate rural cooperative financial institutions
Foreign practice shows that cooperative financial institutions have endogenous advantages in serving members because of their own system design and organizational model. It is an effective way for the disadvantaged groups to solve the problem of capital demand through mutual assistance under the condition of market economy, and it is the lowest-cost institutional arrangement, which plays an important role in rural finance, and some countries even play a leading role. China should also make full use of cooperative finance. At the same time, the primary forms of cooperative financial activities, such as joint meetings and round tables, which widely exist among the people in China, show that there is a great demand for cooperative finance in rural areas. However, it should be noted that the reform of rural credit cooperatives has formed a path dependence and cannot be standardized as a cooperative financial institution. Therefore, it is necessary to rely on the spontaneous strength of farmers to re-cultivate rural cooperative financial institutions. You can consider starting from the following aspects:
1. Cooperative financial institutions follow the principle of farmers' voluntariness and are organized spontaneously by farmers, and can no longer take the old road of government-arranged. The regulatory authorities give guidance to farmers in establishing cooperative financial institutions in terms of personnel training and system construction, but they cannot interfere.
2. Combined with the legalization and standardization of non-governmental financial activities, the current primary cooperative financial activities can be transformed into standardized cooperative financial institutions, or capital cooperation can be introduced on the basis of the existing agricultural production cooperative organizations established by farmers spontaneously, which can be used as a demonstration and promoted throughout the country.
3. The members of cooperative financial institutions should be limited to their own villages at the beginning. It is mainly considered that if the scope is expanded, the information processing cost of cooperative financial institutions will increase and the efficiency will decrease.
4. Formulate cooperative financial laws and regulations to provide legal guarantee for the supervision and policy support of cooperative financial business.
5. While cultivating rural cooperative financial institutions, we should also promote cooperation in the field of production and marketing, actively guide and promote farmers to establish professional cooperative economic organizations in the field of production and marketing, and improve the degree of organization of rural economy through integration with cooperative finance.
(D) Establish a mechanism to ensure the effective return of rural funds.
The key to the establishment of rural capital return mechanism is to solve the problem of agricultural bank and postal savings funds returning to the countryside. Specific suggestions are as follows:
1. Formulate community reinvestment law.
It is necessary to draw lessons from international experience, formulate a community reinvestment law, and force county branches of national financial institutions to use a certain proportion of deposits absorbed from their counties for local loans.
2. Guide the return of postal savings funds.
The government can adopt the principles of voluntariness, mutual benefit and marketization in the form of incentives or subsidies, strengthen the cooperation among postal savings banks, policy banks and microfinance institutions, and guide the return of funds to rural areas. For example, we can consider resuming the issuance of policy financial bonds by the Agricultural Development Bank, and purchasing bonds by the Postal Savings Office at the market price; Microfinance institutions and postal savings offices can sign agreements through independent consultation to lend postal savings to microfinance institutions. In this process, the state can study and give policy support to encourage postal savings funds to return to the countryside. It should be noted that the relevant parties proposed to guide the postal savings funds to be operated by rural credit cooperatives to support "agriculture, rural areas and farmers". Considering that rural credit cooperatives are in a monopoly position in rural financial market, the return of postal savings funds will strengthen this monopoly, which is not conducive to the development of rural financial market. Therefore, we should control the return of postal savings through rural credit cooperatives, realize the diversification of postal savings funds return channels, encourage the development of other financial institutions, and promote the establishment of competitive rural financial markets.