Internet loans are tightened again: how powerful is it to set 3 indicators and prohibit remote operations?
After half a year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission further regulated the internet loan business of commercial banks.
On February 20, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Notice on Further Regulating the Internet Loan Business of Commercial Banks" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), setting three restrictive quantitative indicators for the Internet lending business of commercial banks, and at the same time, it is clear that the legal person bank shall not Develop Internet loan business across jurisdictions of registration.
In July 2020, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has issued the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Loans of Commercial Banks" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures").
The three quantitative indicators are: capital contribution ratio, that is, commercial banks and cooperative institutions jointly contribute funds to grant loans, and the partner’s capital contribution ratio in a single loan shall not be less than 30%; concentration index, which is the amount issued by commercial banks and a single partner The bank's loan balance shall not exceed 25% of the net tier 1 capital; the limit indicator, that is, the balance of Internet loans issued jointly by commercial banks and all cooperative institutions, shall not exceed 50% of the total loan balance.
"This "Notice" formulates more complete rules for the content of the "Measures" in accordance with the principle of prudential supervision, which can effectively curb the rapid expansion of the scale of Internet loans." Financial technology expert Su Xiaorui analyzed.
Dong Ximiao, the chief researcher of China Merchants Finance and a part-time researcher of the Institute of Finance of Fudan University, also said that the "Notice" has substantially tightened the requirements of Internet lending policies and is a further refinement and amendment of the "Measures."
The main purpose is to implement a series of requirements of the central government on regulating financial technology and platform economic development, further strengthen financial supervision, and better prevent financial risks.
Zeng Gang, director of the National Finance and Development Laboratory, mentioned to The Paper that the further regulation of the "Notice" is mainly in two aspects: one controls the cross-regional operations of small and medium-sized banks, and the second controls the potential risks of the joint loan cooperation parties. On the one hand, further clarifications were made. On the one hand, the leverage of the partners was restricted, and the concentration of banks was restricted on the other to reduce the different financial risks that may be brought to both parties in the joint loan.
Set investment ratio: limit the leverage of partners
Regarding the requirement that the partner's capital contribution ratio in a single loan should not be less than 30%, the head of the relevant department of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission stated that in practice, individual banks have weak credit risk management, and the rights and responsibilities of the partners are not right. Damaged the foundation of the healthy and sustainable development of Internet loan business.
This standard is based on the actual situation of the current commercial banks’ Internet loan business development, after full investigation and calculation, and also takes into account the consistency with the relevant provisions of the "Interim Measures for the Management of Internet Small Loan Business (Draft for Comment)" to avoid Regulatory arbitrage.
Zeng Gang believes that in the joint loan, the proportion of capital contribution by the cooperative institution is too small, and the bank's capital contribution is too high, which means that the cooperative institution will overuse leverage.
If the cooperative institution itself is also a financial institution, it will cause its own risk to be too high.
Therefore, Zeng Gang believes that the requirement of “partners’ capital contribution should not be less than 30%” is mainly to avoid systemic risks caused by the excessive leverage of joint loan partners.
Chen Wen, director of the Digital Economy Research Center of the School of Finance of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, mentioned that only after the partners provide a certain proportion of capital contribution, banks can truly control risk and reduce the risks assumed by commercial banks. This is also for the actual risk control of banks in the joint loan model. Reality fully grasped by external partners.
Set concentration and limit indicators: diversify joint loan risks and prevent risk contagion
The "Notice" clarifies the quantitative standards for concentration risk management and limit management.
On the one hand, commercial banks and cooperative institutions jointly fund loans, and the balance of loans issued by the bank with a single partner shall not exceed 25% of the bank's net tier 1 capital.
On the other hand, the balance of Internet loans jointly funded by commercial banks and cooperative institutions shall not exceed 50% of the bank's total loan balance.
In fact, in order to prevent the risk of cooperating institutions from spreading to the banking system, the "Measures" issued last year have put forward limit management and cooperating institution concentration management requirements for commercial banks to carry out Internet loans.
However, in practice, various commercial banks have different understanding and grasp of the above regulations, and the concentration management and limit management of individual institutions have failed.
The person in charge of the relevant departments of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission stated that the above-mentioned regulations can not only promote commercial banks to further realize the appropriate dispersion of Internet loan business, avoid the concentration risk of excessive dependence on a single cooperative institution, and at the same time reserve sufficient space for the healthy development of Internet loan business.
"From the bank's perspective, if the joint loan provided by a joint loan cooperative institution accounts for an excessively high proportion of the bank's loans, or the Internet loan accounts for an excessively high proportion of loans, it may cause the bank's concentration risk. Problems, or problems with Internet loans, banks’ loan risks will be very high.” Zeng Gang said.
Chen Wen also mentioned that if the risk control of a single partner is not solid, it is likely to pass the risk to the bank.
Dong Ximiao also said that strengthening the management of the concentration of cooperative institutions is mainly to diversify the risks of joint loans and avoid small and medium banks from "putting eggs in the same basket" and overly relying on a single external partner.
He also mentioned that the quota index is mainly to control the risk of Internet loans from the total amount and avoid the disorderly growth of Internet loans. "This has little effect."
Ban local banks from operating across regions
The "Notice" stipulates that cross-regional operations shall be strictly controlled, and that if corporate banks conduct Internet loan business, they shall serve local customers and shall not conduct Internet loan business across jurisdictions of registration.
Non-physical business outlets and businesses are mainly carried out online, except those that meet other requirements of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.
The person in charge of the relevant department of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission pointed out that in recent years, individual local banks have used Internet technology to expand their business areas, which have seriously deviated from their positioning and expanded blindly and disorderly, bringing greater risks and hidden dangers.
The "Notice" further clarifies and strictly controls the cross-regional operation of Internet loans. At the same time, the "Notice" also fully considers the actual situation of some institutions, and exempts institutions that do not have physical operations and whose business is mainly carried out online and meet other requirements of the regulatory agency. The above regulations apply.
Su Xiaorui believes that the "Notice" is conducive to clarifying the business boundaries of legal persons from the source and guiding local legal person commercial banks to adhere to their development positioning. "After controlling cross-regional operations, local legal person commercial banks need to deepen the local economy. To one-sidedly pursue rapid growth in scale, but based on the local development path of'small and beautiful'."
Chen Wen also said that the important motivation for the establishment of regional small and medium-sized banks is to serve the regional market, but the Internet loan deviates from the original intention of serving the local market, and the risks are completely beyond control.
Zeng Gang mentioned that the fact that small and medium-sized banks realize nationwide operations through Internet loans in disguised form will cause two problems: On the one hand, small and medium-sized banks cannot grasp the risks of foreign loans and can only rely entirely on the joint lender and separate from the small and medium-sized banks themselves. control ability.
On the other hand, the cross-regional operation of local legal entities may reduce the resource input to the local economy, which may lead to insufficient support for the local economy, causing small and medium banks to deviate from their origins.
Dong Ximiao pointed out that this will have a greater impact on small and medium-sized banks that have already launched Internet loan business.
He also said, “Under the current social background of large turnover of people, how to define cross-regional operations, based on the user’s work place, household registration, or social security payment place or other standards, needs to be further explored in practice.”
Set a transition period: set aside time for rectification and smooth transition
The relevant person in charge of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission stated that for the quantitative standards of concentration risk management and limit management, the supervisory department will follow the principle of "one line, one policy, and smooth transition" to supervise and guide institutions to complete the orderly rectification before July 17, 2022.
With regard to the capital contribution ratio standard and cross-regional operation restrictions, the "new and old division" is implemented, and new businesses are required to implement the "Notice" requirements from January 1, 2022, allowing existing businesses to be settled naturally.
"The reasonable setting of the transition period is inferred to be compatible with the financial report and MPA assessment, so that the bank can arrange various tasks in an orderly manner." Su Xiaorui said.
Zeng Gang pointed out that this is a problem of stock adjustment.
The scale of Internet loan business is not small, and there are many participating institutions. Too fast advancement may produce some short-term shocks. Therefore, giving a certain amount of time to adjust can basically ensure an orderly transition.
The remaining business will naturally not be added after maturity, "because these loans are usually not long in term", so this will not have a big impact on the market.
Dong Ximiao also believes that a long transition period allows banks sufficient time for rectification, which helps to maintain a smooth business transition and reduce the impact on customers.
Reporter Ye Yinghe