In the process of illegal business loans flowing into the property market
A gray industrial chain has been formed
Some "loan aid" agencies register and change shell companies
Falsify false contracts and make accounts
Encirclement and suppress business loans into the property market
Reporter/Chen Weishan
Published in the 990th issue of China News Weekly on April 5, 2021
Taking loans in the name of business operations, and then turning around to enter the property market, this method of operation is being censored across the country.
On March 26, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Central Bank jointly issued the "Notice on Preventing the Illegal Flow of Loans for Business Purposes into the Real Estate Sector" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), and the time limit for completing the investigation work was set before May 31.
After the epidemic, under the background of credit resources tilted towards small and micro enterprises, household operating loans increased significantly in 2020. The balance of domestic and foreign currency household operating loans increased by 2.27 trillion yuan to 13.62 trillion yuan, an increase of 20%. .
Among them, how many violations flow into the property market?
The illegal inflow of operating loans into the property market is not a new phenomenon that only appeared this year. The three ministries and commissions notified that the requirements for strengthening loan approval are clear, but the fate of “unpredictable” still seems difficult to get rid of, especially when lending to small and micro enterprises has become a “political task” of banks. Under the circumstances, how to achieve a balance has become a dilemma for banks.
Interest rates are lower than mortgages
Operating loans are loans for operating purposes. This relatively broad concept includes personal operating loans and corporate liquidity loans.
"The business loans that flow into the property market in violation of regulations are mostly personal business loans. Loans in the name of individuals, using real estate as collateral, and used for business operations in which they act as legal persons, shareholders or actual controllers. Such loans are generally classified as personal business in banks. "A person in the banking industry told China News Weekly.
In the statistics of the direction of RMB loans announced by the central bank, compared with loans from enterprises (institutions), household sector loans refer to personal loans, which can be divided into household consumption loans and household business loans.
In previous investigations, some places more clearly targeted personal business loans.
For example, at the end of January, the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau required banks within its jurisdiction to conduct a comprehensive self-examination of the compliance of newly issued personal business loans since the second half of 2020.
Because of the characteristics of low interest rates, long years, and high quotas, operating loans are becoming more and more popular among "real estate speculators".
"Consumer loans were restricted in September 2017. The upper limit of the loan amount was 1 million yuan, and the term was limited to 10 years. In addition, the interest rate was much higher, resulting in a very high monthly consumer loan payment." General Manager of Guangzhou Dayuan Mortgage Agency Service Company Zheng Dayuan explained why the inflow of operating loans into the property market has increased, saying that operating loans are just the opposite, with a higher amount. Although the term is not long, the repayment method can start with interest and then pay. Therefore, the monthly payment is not high, and the most important thing is the low interest rate.
"The interest rate of business loans is lower than that of housing loans, and more than that of consumer loans."
According to data released by the Rong360 Big Data Research Institute, in January 2021, the average interest rate of loans for the first home in the country was 5.22%, and the average interest rate on loans for the second home was 5.53%.
"The interest rate of operating loans is generally lower than 5%, and the interest rate of one-year loans is even lower than 4%." The aforementioned banker told China News Weekly.
"Except for the interest rate of small and micro enterprise loans, most of the loan lines for business loans are more than 3 million yuan, and the repayment period is longer than ordinary corporate loans, which can reach more than 5 years." A joint-stock banker told China News Weekly ".
Li Yujia, chief researcher of the Guangdong Provincial Housing Policy Research Center, told China News Weekly, “In order to avoid high ratings, in practice, residential properties can be loaned to 70% of the appraised value, and commercial properties can be loaned to 50% of the appraised value. "
At the beginning of 2021, the investigations carried out in various regions will no longer be "fruitless."
In mid-to-late March, Guangdong, Shenzhen, and Beijing successively announced the investigation results: Guangdong found 277 million yuan of funds suspected of illegal inflows into the property market, involving 920 households; Shenzhen's investigation scope was 154,000 loans with 177.171 billion operating loans, and 21 suspected violations The corresponding amount of loans was 51.8 million yuan; Beijing found that the amount of personal business loans suspected of illegally flowing into the local real estate market was about 340 million yuan, accounting for about 0.35% of the total business loan self-examination business. This is the result of the self-examination. Special inspections by the regulatory authorities found that about 30 million yuan of credit funds were suspected to have flowed into the real estate market in violation of regulations.
Compared with the amount of operating loans, the illegal inflows into the property market detected by the three places accounted for a very low proportion, and the outside world generally believed that it was lower than the imagined illegal inflows.
Many interviewed bankers believe that this may be related to the difficulty of investigation.
Unpredictable violations?
"We require that business loans of more than 3 million yuan must be paid by entrustment. The payment will be directly transferred to the public account of another company that has business dealings with the applicant company based on the contract and invoice. If it is to be transferred to the applicant company's corporate account, The account has strict conditions." The aforementioned joint-stock banker told China News Weekly that this is to ensure that the loan is used for actual business needs.
Entrusted payment is to reduce the risk of loan embezzlement. In short, the loan funds are not paid to the borrower, but to the borrower's transaction partner.
Operating loan funds enter the property market in violation of regulations, usually by first purchasing a house in full, and then mortgage the property to arbitrage the operating loan.
Therefore, in the investigation process in various places since the beginning of this year, the purchase of a house with full payment has become the target of attention.
For example, since the end of January, Beijing has conducted a general investigation of transaction cases in hot areas of the property market, focusing on the behavior of purchasers and their immediate family members who have recently applied for business loans in the purchase of a full-fledged house.
Subsequently, the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau and the Central Bank's Operation Management Department required that banks prudently grant personal business loans to customers who have recently applied for personal housing mortgage loans or purchased houses.
The notice issued by the three ministries and commissions further clarifies the "near-term" time frame. For borrowers whose establishment time or transfer of equity is less than one year, and those who hold mortgaged real estate for less than one year, it is necessary to further strengthen The qualification review of the borrower shall conduct cross-verification of various types of information such as industrial and commercial registration, business operations, and taxation status, and enterprise certification materials shall not be used in place of substantive review.
However, the time point of applying for an operating loan and buying a house does not necessarily mean a violation of regulations. It is necessary to check where an operating loan is ultimately used.
As mentioned earlier, business loans are usually entrusted to pay, so their inflow into the property market often flows into the property market through multiple false operating contracts and multiple payments, and funds often flow between accounts of multiple companies.
"Some small and micro business owners have multiple companies under their names, and it is common to transfer accounts back and forth, and there are intermediaries that set up shell companies to do a good job in turnover and account transfer." The aforementioned banker told China News Weekly.
In the process of illegally flowing business loans into the property market, a gray industrial chain has indeed formed. Some "loan aid" agencies have registered and changed shell companies, forged false contracts, and falsely booked accounts.
For example, Shenzhen officials reported a typical case involving the Shenzhen branch of Ping An Bank. Its customer Zhong Mou purchased real estate through a lump-sum payment on March 16, 2020, and set up a company the next day, holding 100% of the shares and holding When the real estate was just six months old, he applied for a real estate loan business loan from the Shenzhen branch of Ping An Bank. The loan amount was 2.26 million yuan, and the funds were entrusted to be paid to Zhang's personal account with the Agricultural Bank.
On the same day, Zhang paid a total of 2.17 million yuan to Liu and other 16 people, of which Liu was paid to 1.78777 million, which was verified to be the final payment for the purchase of a residential building on behalf of Zhong.
Through this case, it is not difficult to see that the business loan did not flow directly into the property market through Zhong, but changed hands many times between Zhang and Liu. During this process, Shenzhen Z Real Estate Brokerage Co., Ltd. bought a house, established a business, and Provide "one-stop" service in loan consultation and other links.
"Both capital intermediaries and real estate intermediaries bear great responsibilities in the process of customers taking business loans, but the supervision is quite lagging. On the one hand, capital intermediaries are rarely regulated, and real estate intermediaries participate in financial business and are basically not regulated. This notice requires the banking industry to establish a black-and-white list system for capital intermediaries, increase review and integrity supervision. At the same time, the housing construction department is required to establish corresponding norms and standards for real estate intermediaries to participate in mortgage finance business, so that the two departments’ Supervisory cooperation is truly established for the first time." Li Yujia said.
"Banks really can't check, especially in advance, they can only ensure that the money from the bank does not flow directly into the property market, mainly to ensure that the contracts and invoices provided by the applicants are complete in form." The aforementioned banker told reporters that more It is a post-mortem supervision that draws out loans after spot checks on illegal inflows into real estate.
The notice also made it clear that once the loan is found to be embezzled in the real estate sector, the loan will be recovered immediately.
This time Shenzhen has recovered 21 suspected illegal loans in advance, with a corresponding amount of 51.8 million yuan.
The small and micro enterprise loan dilemma behind the violation
This notice proposes that banking financial institutions shall conduct penetrating and substantive reviews of loan requirements for business purposes, and reasonably determine the total amount of credit according to the actual business needs of the borrower, and match the actual business conditions such as the company's annual operating income and capital flow. .
It also specifically mentioned that “the review of real loan demand must not be relaxed due to sufficient mortgage”.
In other words, the notice requires banks to lend based on the actual business needs of the company, not just based on the collateral, that is, the value of the real estate.
Li Yujia believes that in the past, real estate prices have risen significantly, and banks have placed less emphasis on the first source of loan repayment, that is, the production and operation income of enterprises, and have turned to rely on real estate collateral. This is a three-check system for loans (pre-loan investigation, loan Time review, post-loan review).
Not paying attention to the actual operating conditions of enterprises, but relying on real estate mortgage loans, behind this is the embarrassment of banks when reviewing loans for small and micro enterprises.
"Only credit loans for large enterprises, that is, unsecured credit loans, will banks strictly examine and approve based on business conditions, while loans for small and micro businesses are, in plain terms, mortgage real estate loans." The aforementioned banker told China News Weekly "When approving personal business loans, in addition to personal credit investigation and corporate credit investigation, it also pays attention to business operations, such as financial reports, bank flow, etc., "but these are relatively false, and the data of small and micro enterprises may be deliberately made. Therefore, the real estate must be mortgaged, otherwise it will not be approved at all."
In other words, mortgage real estate is the key to the bank's guarantee of loan security.
"As real estate mortgages become the'standard configuration' of personal business loans, it is less risky to do this kind of business in first-tier cities, because the risk of mortgage real estate in other cities is not low." A bank account manager even asked, "If it is true How many small and micro enterprises can get loans based on their operating conditions? Real estate is really a very safe asset for banks."
The requirement for credit resources to be tilted towards small and micro enterprises and at the same time to lower interest rates seems to inevitably lead to banks seeking safer assets as collateral when reviewing loans.
"The main reason why business goods can flow into the property market, the reason why they can be hidden from the sky, the level of credit review can be passed, and the three loan checks are mere formalities, and they enter the real estate market under the cloak of real economy loans. The main reason lies in the bank's internal financial managers, The account manager cooperates with external capital intermediaries and real estate intermediaries to jointly obtain funds." Li Yujia said.
But from the perspective of the bank, some account managers bluntly said that even if they know that some people are embezzling business loans to buy houses, banks are willing to lend. After all, there are real estates in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen as collateral, which is much safer than other loans.
"In fact, there is a method of drawing salary from the bottom of the tank, which is to not only print the sales certificate when inspecting the business performance of the enterprise, but to check the tax." Zheng Dayuan told China News Weekly that this will raise the cost of fraud and eat up the profit of real estate speculation. The business record certificate can be created only by transfer, but real money and platinum are required to pay taxes."
"In fact, some small and micro enterprises are in a state of loss and don't need to pay taxes at all." The aforementioned bank account manager bluntly said that this may harm some enterprises with real needs.
A number of interviewed bank account managers told China News Weekly that the current tightening of the review of personal business loans is mainly reflected in three aspects, one is the registration time of the business license of the enterprise, and the second is the time of issuing the real estate certificate for mortgaged real estate. The third is the real business situation. "It is difficult to apply for a business loan with the new business license and real estate certificate."
In the case that the notice to strengthen the review of operating loans is obvious, the aforementioned bankers believe that it may lead to an increase in borrowers’ borrowing costs. “It could have been easy to apply for loans, but now even some borrowers with real needs need packaging materials. The bank’s personal lending business volume has decreased, and many people have a clear wait-and-see mood because they are worried about not meeting the conditions."
The person in charge of the relevant department emphasized in responding to the notice whether it will affect the reasonable financing of enterprises and individuals: At present, some business loans are illegally embezzled in the real estate field, squeezing the credit resources of the real economy to a certain extent.
The notice to strictly control such violations will release more credit resources to serve the development of the real economy and promote a virtuous cycle of finance and the real economy.
"The investigation is more based on the consideration of controlling housing prices. From the perspective of financial risks, the risks of these loans are basically controllable." The aforementioned bankers believe that the local bank found that the illegal inflow of operating loans into the property market was limited. National investigations are more of "killing chickens and monkeys", warning that credit funds will no longer flow into the property market in violation of regulations.
China News Weekly, Issue 12, 2021
Statement: The publication of the "China News Weekly" manuscript is authorized in writing