The central bank decided to lower the standard deposit rate by 1 percentage point for small and medium-sized banks and lower the interest rate of excess deposit reserve

Focus on SMEs to reduce financing costs (economic focus)

Core reading

On April 3, the central bank decided to lower the standard for small and medium-sized banks, and for the first time in 12 years, lowered the interest rate of excess deposit reserve. This move is an important measure to promote structural reforms on the financial supply side, and supports small and medium-sized banks to better focus on small and medium-sized enterprises and serve the real economy.

In addition, the central bank will play a leading role in financial policies, grasp the strength, focus and rhythm of the policy, provide accurate services to enterprises, ease financing difficulties and expensive financing, and promote the gradual decline in the actual financing costs of enterprises.

In order to support the development of the real economy, increase support for small and medium-sized enterprises, and reduce the actual cost of social financing, on April 3, the People's Bank of China decided to lower the standard for small and medium-sized banks, and cut the excess deposit reserve interest rate for the first time in 12 years. . How can further targeted reductions in small and medium-sized banks support the real economy? How to better provide accurate financial services? What do you think of the next monetary policy? The reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of the People's Bank, related enterprises and experts.

Optimizing the financial supply structure through reforms and releasing long-term funds of around RMB 400 billion

On April 3, the People ’s Bank of China decided to lower the deposit reserve ratio by 1 percentage point for rural credit cooperatives, rural commercial banks, rural cooperative banks, village banks, and urban commercial banks operating only in provincial administrative regions. It was put into place twice a day and May 15th, with a reduction of 0.5 percentage points each time. This is the third time for the People's Bank of China to lower the standard after the comprehensive standard reduction in January this year and the targeted reduction in general financial inclusion in March.

Liu Guoqiang, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, said that the implementation of a low deposit reserve ratio for small and medium-sized banks is an important measure to promote structural reforms on the financial supply side. Through reforms, the financial supply structure and credit fund allocation are optimized to support small and medium-sized banks to better focus Small and medium-sized enterprises increase credit supply, reduce financing costs, and serve the real economy.

It is reported that the targeted RRR cut can release about 400 billion yuan of long-term funds, and each small and medium-sized bank can obtain about 100 million yuan of long-term funds on average. This effectively increases the stable source of funds for small and medium-sized banks to support the real economy, and can also reduce the cost of bank funds. 6 billion yuan, through bank transmission is conducive to promoting the reduction of real interest rates for small and medium-sized enterprises loans, directly supporting the real economy.

Lian Ping, chief economist and director of the Research Institute of Zhixin Investment, believes that the majority of small and medium-sized banks serve small and medium-sized enterprises. After the deposit reserve ratio is lowered, the loanable funds of small and medium-sized banks further increase, which is conducive to the current situation. Accurate rescue.

Why is this targeted downgrade in place implemented twice? The relevant person in charge of the People's Bank said that this is to prevent liquidity accumulation caused by excessive one-off releases, and to ensure that the RRR cuts of small and medium-sized banks will invest all the funds obtained at small and medium-sized enterprises at lower interest rates. After the RRR cut, the deposit reserve ratio of more than 4,000 small and medium deposit financial institutions has fallen to 6%. From the perspective of China's history and the situation of developing countries, the 6% deposit reserve ratio is a relatively low level.

It is worth noting that, in addition to the targeted reduction, the People's Bank of China stated that it will lower the interest rate for excess deposit reserves of financial institutions in the People's Bank of China from 0.72% to 0.35% from April 7. This is the first time that the People's Bank of China has lowered the interest rate on excess deposit reserves for the first time in 12 years.

"This time the People's Bank lowered the excess deposit reserve interest rate, the purpose is to promote banks to improve the efficiency of capital use, increase the bank's willingness to lend, so that banks can better serve the real economy, especially small and medium-sized enterprises." Founder Securities chief economist color Say.

Give full play to the leading role of financial policies, ease financing difficulties and expensive financing, and provide accurate services

A few days ago, Zhuang Guoyuan, the head of Fujian Hexiang Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., had no choice but to raise funds. Hexiang Agriculture is a large-scale comprehensive agricultural development enterprise. Due to the epidemic situation, the production and operation of the enterprise was once stalled, and the capital turnover was facing difficulties.

On March 1, after understanding the situation of the company, the account manager of Hui'an Rural Credit Cooperative immediately established a one-to-one service mechanism. Under the guidance of the Fuzhou Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China, within two days, the company distributed With a loan of 3 million yuan, Hexiang Agriculture has also become one of the first agricultural enterprises in Fujian Province to be supported by a special amount of funds for agricultural refinancing. Nowadays, with the funds to purchase rapeseed, agricultural machinery and other spring cultivation materials, the scale of vegetable cultivation of enterprises has further expanded.

The Politburo meeting of the Communist Party of China recently held requires that the full use of financial policies such as re-loan re-discounting and loan repayment of principal and interest should be leveraged, the transmission mechanism should be unblocked, financing should be difficult and expensive, and the prevention and control of the epidemic, and the resumption of production Provide accurate financial services with the development of the real economy.

Dong Ximiao, a special researcher of the National Finance and Development Laboratory, believes that since the outbreak, the People's Bank of China has set up a special re-loan of 300 billion yuan, an additional 500 billion yuan re-loan re-discount line, and assisted key enterprises to resume production with preferential interest rate funds. Good results. “The special re-loan that the People ’s Bank of China instructs the bank to invest is life-saving money, and it is invested in the key guarantee companies on the list. The newly re-discounted re-credit quota can provide small and medium-sized banks with a low-cost source of funds and increase their ability to issue loans. And enthusiasm, while applying more companies, is a more inclusive policy. "

The reporter learned from the People's Bank of China: As of March 31, in terms of the use of 300 billion yuan in special re-loans, 9 national banks and 10 provincial, municipal and local corporate banks have issued a total of 231.5 billion preferential loans to 5,995 national and local key enterprises RMB, the weighted average interest rate is 2.51%, and after the financial discount, the actual financing interest rate of the company is about 1.26%; in terms of re-discounting of 500 billion yuan, the local corporate bank has issued a total of 304.2 billion yuan in preferential interest loans (including discounts) to support the enterprise. (Including farmers) 351,400 households.

During the epidemic, in addition to implementing special re-loans and re-loan rediscounting policies, banking financial institutions also provided precision financial services to the real economy through loan deferred principal and interest payments.

Zhou Liang, deputy chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, said recently that after the introduction of the loan repayment policy, it has been welcomed by small, medium and micro enterprises. According to incomplete statistics, as of April 3, the principal and interest of loans for small and medium-sized enterprises that implemented deferred repayments amounted to more than 700 billion yuan. "Wholesale and retail, accommodation and catering, hotels, logistics, and cultural tourism have been hit hard by the epidemic, requiring banks not to blindly draw loans, break loans, and suppress loans. In particular, they should lower the loan interest rate to benefit enterprises. At the same time, by increasing credit loans And medium and long-term loans, support enterprises to resume production as soon as possible. "Zhou Liang said.

Grasp the strength, focus and rhythm of monetary policy and maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity

Recently, the market is more concerned about whether the People's Bank of China will lower the benchmark deposit rate. Liu Guoqiang said, "Of course, it can be used as a tool, but this tool is special, it is a" ballast stone ", so it needs to be considered more in practice. Liu Guoqiang believes that factors to be considered include price conditions, economic growth, internal and external balance, etc. In particular, the relationship between deposit interest rates and ordinary people is more direct, and the feelings of ordinary people should be considered.

The Politburo meeting of the CPC Central Committee recently pointed out that it is necessary to step up macroeconomic policy adjustment and implementation. We must pay close attention to research and put forward a package of macro-policy measures that are actively responded to. Active fiscal policies must be more active and promising, and sound monetary policies must be more flexible and appropriate. Next, what is the direction of monetary policy?

The next step is to grasp the strength, focus and rhythm of the policy in stages. According to different stages, maintain reasonable and sufficient liquidity to fully meet market demand. "We will never let a" money shortage "appear in the market, and of course, money should not be" changed ", to meet the market demand is reasonably sufficient, to achieve the growth rate of M2 and social financing scale and the nominal GDP growth rate basically match and slightly higher." Liu Guoqiang said.

Liu Guoqiang said that it is necessary to continue to make good use of the 300 billion yuan special refinancing and 500 billion yuan refinancing rediscount policies, implement the inclusive refinancing rediscount rediscount of the newly added 1 trillion yuan, and achieve seamless integration with the previous policy , There is no break. At the same time, implement targeted directional RRR cuts and give full play to the positive incentive and guiding role of reserve tools.

Reducing the financing cost of the real economy is currently an important task. Dong Ximiao believes that further reforms should be made to improve the relevant mechanisms and deepen the market-oriented reform of loan interest rates. At present, we should pay close attention to promoting the conversion of the stock floating rate loan pricing benchmark, and unblock the monetary policy transmission channels in a reformed manner to promote the gradual decline in the actual financing costs of enterprises.

Wen Bin, chief researcher of China Minsheng Bank, believes that a sound monetary policy should be more flexible and appropriate, and that the support for the recovery of the real economy should be placed in a more prominent position, and comprehensive consideration should be given to all factors such as epidemic prevention and control, economic development, etc. Various policy tools to ensure the stable operation of the economy.

Ge Mengchao Wang Guan