New rules for Internet lending: strengthening the Matthew effect of the loan-assistance industry and boosting the light-capital model
In recent years, the integration of the Internet and the financial industry has continued to deepen. The Internet loan business of financial institutions represented by commercial banks has developed rapidly. Various commercial banks are trying to develop Internet loan business in different modes and to varying degrees.
On the other hand, along with the wind of Internet financial remediation, Internet financial companies have withdrawn from P2P online lending business, and many large enterprises have chosen to transform financial technology and make efforts to "help loans" to provide services for credit businesses of commercial banks and other financial institutions.
On July 17, the Interim Measures for the Administration of Commercial Banks’ Internet Loans (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”) formulated by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission was formally implemented, and a number of regulations on loan cooperation management were formulated, which indicated the direction for further standardizing the “loan assistance” business. .
So, how does the "Measure" affect the "credit assistance" industry? Where will the "lending assistance" business go?
Refined industry management
According to the "Measures", the cooperative institutions of commercial banks' Internet loans refer to cooperation with commercial banks in marketing and customer acquisition, co-financing to issue loans, payment settlement, risk sharing, information technology, overdue collection, etc. Various types of institutions, including but not limited to financial institutions such as banking financial institutions, insurance companies, and non-financial institutions such as microfinance companies, financing guarantee companies, e-commerce companies, non-bank payment institutions, and information technology companies.
Fintech companies transformed from Internet finance companies are among them.
On May 9, the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission website released the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Commercial Banks' Internet Loans (Draft for Comment)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Administrative Measures"), and formally solicited opinions from the public. In response to a reporter’s question, the person in charge of the relevant department said that some banks have more extensive management of cooperative institutions, such as failure to establish a unified management system across the bank, defects in the qualifications of cooperative institutions, and insufficient continuous management of cooperative institutions, etc., triggering bank reputation. risk. In order to guide commercial banks to prudently cooperate with cooperative institutions and prevent the risk of cooperative institutions from spreading to banks, the "Measures" require commercial banks to establish a full-process and systematic management mechanism for cooperative institutions from entry to exit to enhance their refined management capabilities .
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of Xinwang Bank and chief researcher of Zhongguancun Internet Finance Research Institute, pointed out that for fintech companies, the "Measures" are "stabilizers" that will promote and standardize Internet loan-related cooperation. Although the "Measures" do not directly mention "assistance loans" or "joint loans," they are relatively open to cooperation with commercial banks in Internet loan business. In particular, financial institutions such as banking financial institutions, insurance companies, and non-financial institutions such as microfinance companies, financing guarantee companies, e-commerce companies, payment institutions, and information technology companies are all listed as cooperative institutions; in addition to credit approval, The core risk control links such as contract signing should be independently and effectively carried out by commercial banks. Other links can be entrusted or partially entrusted to cooperative institutions. Insurance companies and institutions with guaranteed qualifications may also charge borrowers a reasonable fee in accordance with relevant regulations.
"Financial technology companies and other cooperative institutions should use policy Dongfeng to standardize cooperative behavior, give play to their advantages in customer drainage, capital support, and risk prevention and control, and make up for the deficiencies of commercial banks and other institutions in customer needs, funding sources, and risk control capabilities. , Build a benign interactive'commercial bank + loan assistance institution + credit enhancement institution' cooperation model." Dong Ximiao said.
Wenxin Xiaowen, CEO of Lexin, said that overall, the "Measures" showed a positive change in the attitude of regulators towards the Internet consumer finance business. One of the most concerned about the outside world is that the New Deal has indicated the direction for the compliance of loan business, and the industry is expected to usher in Benign rapid development. The new regulations provide a general definition of the scope of cooperation between banks and third-party institutions, and include all types of institutions that cooperate with commercial banks in marketing customer acquisition, joint loans, risk sharing, information technology, and overdue collection.
He said: "In other words, lending institutions that have been misunderstood as P2P in the past have officially received a regulatory "correct name."
An industry insider in the “loan assistance” industry said that the new regulations officially released and the previous draft for comments were basically the same. As for the future institutional cooperation model of loan assistance, loan product model and amount, product information disclosure requirements, big data privacy protection, and the risk control requirements of various parties, etc., it will be finally implemented. In the future, in the loan assistance business, the rights and responsibilities of all parties The requirements for roles are further clarified, which is conducive to the further development of the loan business.
Does the list management have Matthew effect?
In terms of specific contents, the "Measures" require commercial banks to establish a unified access mechanism for cooperative institutions throughout the bank, implement a list system management of cooperative institutions, and conduct pre-admission assessment of cooperative institutions. At the same time, during the period of cooperation, the cooperative institutions should be fully evaluated at least once a year, and if it is found that the cooperative institutions cannot continue to meet the access conditions, the cooperative relationship should be terminated in time.
Lawyers Liu Xinyu and Chen Jiawei of Zhonglun Law Firm wrote that taking the loan industry as an example, the impact of the implementation of the list management on the loan assistance cooperative institutions is that it may lead to a further increase in the concentration and head of the loan assistance industry, squeezing small and medium-sized enterprises. The living space of the loan assistance platform. For commercial banks and other capital parties, pre-admission assessment and list management of cooperative institutions often means cooperation with large platforms and platforms with strong capital strength. However, commercial banks should also be appropriately decentralized when choosing cooperative institutions to avoid over-reliance on a single cooperative institution.
"The industry expects that while the lending industry will standardize and develop rapidly, the industry's Matthew effect will be more significant." Xiao Wenjie also expressed a similar view.
The above-mentioned industry believes that with this form of requirement, it will increase the threshold of entry for cooperative institutions to a certain extent. In the process of continuous expansion of business, endorsement will be added to the head institutions. Many small institutions, because of the limitation of entry threshold, Will increase the cost of cooperation. But on the other hand, the layout of the bank’s loan assistance business is not static, and it is not impossible for the bank to modify its white list of cooperative institutions with subsequent changes in assets and channels in subdivision, especially small banks, he The flexibility and business craving are different.
Regarding the collection of interest and fees, the official draft retains the exemption that insurance companies and guaranteed institutions can charge borrowers. Xiao Wenjie pointed out that this is the first time that it has broken through the long-standing restrictions imposed by the regulatory authorities that "cooperative institutions must not charge interest to borrowers in any form", which clears the barriers for insurance companies and guarantee institutions to participate in the loan assistance business and also helps to hold relevant licenses. The financial holding group strengthened the linkage of its business segments.
In addition, in terms of guarantee and credit enhancement, the loan-assistance industry will also usher in stricter scrutiny.
Compared with the solicitation draft, the official draft added the expression that “commercial banks must not relax the control of loan quality due to the introduction of guarantees and increase credit”. "This essentially emphasizes that commercial banks should have the ability to independently control Internet loans." Liu Xinyu and Chen Jiawei said.
Liu Xinyu and Chen Jiawei believe that, in industry practice, after regulatory requirements that “no unsecured third-party institutions provide credit enhancement services and undercover commitments and other credibility enhancement services” are required, cooperative agencies tend to adopt acquisition/new establishment The way of financing guarantee companies is to provide guarantees to commercial banks by financing guarantee companies, and the specific model may be supplemented by arrangements such as "margin" and "counter-guarantee". However, in practice, many financing guarantee companies are actually just "shell companies", and they only have the qualification to provide financing guarantee services, but do not have the ability to actually assume guarantee responsibility. For this type of financing guarantee company, it is necessary for commercial banks to strengthen the review of their credit enhancement capabilities during cooperation.
It is understood that when mutual financial companies have transformed and cooperated with banks, trusts, consumer financial companies and other financial institutions to develop loan assistance services, financial institutions generally require mutual financial companies to provide guarantees in order to control risks. Therefore, the financing guarantee license is a necessary license for mutual financial institutions to develop loan assistance business.
At present, a number of mutual gold platforms listed on the US stock market have obtained financing guarantee licenses, such as Jiayin Jinke (NASDAQ: JFIN), Xinye Technology (NYSE: FINV), Lexin (NASDAQ: LX), Xiaoying Technology ( NYSE: XYF), Fun Store Group (NYSE: QD), 360 Finance (NASDAQ: QFIN), etc.
The light capital model is more in line with the requirements of the "Measures"
A person in the loan assistance industry told Peng Mei News that he learned from the heads of risk control and financial cooperation business of many enterprises that the "Measures" promoted the implementation of the light capital model because it was more in line with the "Measures" Requirements for the development direction of financial aid platforms such as financial technology platforms and banks.
What is the "light capital model"? This model is relative to the previous "heavy capital model" where lenders have to pay 5%-10% of deposits to financial institutions to carry out a "bottom". Lenders do not need to pay a margin "bottom", only earn The service fee for obtaining customers and risk control only needs to guide the borrower to the bank after completing the first risk control. Whether the loan is granted to the customer or not, the amount is determined by the financial institution.
The industry insider said that with the development of the Internet, users' financial usage habits have changed. For traditional financial institutions, customer acquisition channels and risk control models have changed. Fintech platforms have taken advantage of customer acquisition and risk control technologies. Form a good complement with financial institutions. In addition, in the past two years, high-quality assets in the market have become scarcer than funds. The platforms that hold high-quality assets have regained their right to speak. In order to solve the problem of business scale limitations, these platforms cannot continue to provide pocket-based loans and funds. In order to obtain high-quality assets, Fang can only make concessions. At the same time as the concession of the capital side, it also obtained higher profits because it assumed higher risks. With the implementation of policies and the implementation of the light capital model, those who accept this model of funding earlier can also accumulate more risk control experience and service experience in loan cooperation, and master the first-mover advantage.
"At present, the light capital model in the loan assistance of the head financial technology platform has also been promoted more. For example, Lexin’s share-run business accounted for about 26% in the first quarter, and it currently accounts for about 30%. The proportion of some businesses increased to 50%." The industry source said.
News reporter Ye Yinghe