Deepening the reform of rural credit cooperatives and optimizing the financial supply system and mechanism related to agriculture——
Promote high-quality development of rural finance
Our reporter Peng Jiang
Rural finance, as the most important capital factor allocation system in my country's rural economic development, plays an important role in rural economic development.
This year's "Government Work Report" proposes to strengthen rural financial services.
At present, my country's rural financial service system is increasingly sound, the construction of rural financial infrastructure continues to improve, the rural financial ecological environment continues to improve, and the availability, convenience and effectiveness of rural financial services have been improved.
However, it should also be noted that rural finance is still a shortcoming of my country's financial services to the real economy. How should rural finance be reformed?
How to gradually improve the quality of rural financial supply and promote the high-quality development of rural finance?
Rural Credit Cooperative Reform "First Order" Landed
Deepening the reform of rural credit cooperatives is of great significance to improving the rural financial service system, enhancing the supply of high-quality rural finance, and serving the comprehensive rural revitalization strategy.
In February 2022, the No. 1 Central Document requires: Accelerate the reform of rural credit cooperatives, improve the provincial (autonomous region) rural credit cooperatives cooperative governance mechanism, and steadily resolve risks.
In March, the People's Bank of China issued the "Opinions on Doing a Good Job in 2022 Financial Support to Comprehensively Promote the Key Work of Rural Revitalization", emphasizing that the reform of rural credit cooperatives should be prudently promoted to eliminate risks.
On April 18, 2022, Zhejiang Rural Commercial Union Bank was established, and the "first order" to deepen the reform of rural credit cooperatives nationwide was officially launched in Zhejiang.
"Our bank will always adhere to the development orientation of supporting agriculture and small businesses, practice the financial purpose and duty of serving the real economy, vigorously develop inclusive finance, and strive to build a first-class community bank in the country," said Wang Xiaolong, chairman of Zhejiang Rural Commercial Union Bank.
With the national rural credit cooperatives to carry out the second round of reform.
On October 16, 2021, the pilot implementation plan for deepening the reform of rural credit cooperatives in Zhejiang Province was approved by the State Council and approved by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission on October 25, becoming the "first order" for deepening the reform of rural credit cooperatives nationwide.
On February 16, 2022, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission approved the establishment of Zhejiang Rural Commercial Union Bank.
The Zhejiang Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau and other departments guided and supported the provincial Rural Credit Union to do a good job in the preparatory work, and promoted the smooth implementation of the reform.
Zhejiang Rural Commercial Union Bank was established on the basis of Zhejiang Rural Credit Union. It is composed of all the legal person rural credit institutions in Zhejiang Province (referred to as member banks) with a registered capital of 5.025 billion yuan. It is a local banking industry with independent corporate legal personality. Financial institution, which is the industry management bank and joint service bank of the member banks.
The Zhejiang reform model retains the advantages of the legal person system at the provincial and county levels to the greatest extent possible.
On the premise of maintaining and strengthening the positioning of county legal persons and private characteristics unchanged, establish and improve the rural credit system of "integration of centralization and division, scientific management, efficient service, stable and safe".
On the basis of the Zhejiang Provincial Association, the Zhejiang Rural Commercial Union Bank Co., Ltd. was established to further strengthen service functions, optimize the management system, and build an effective risk prevention and disposal mechanism; Improve the service capacity of supporting agriculture and small businesses, and accelerate the construction of a modern small and medium-sized banking system with clear property rights, sound governance, sufficient capital, and distinctive features of supporting agriculture and small businesses.
Deepening the reform of the provincial association system
The key to speeding up the reform of rural credit cooperatives is to deepen the reform of the provincial cooperatives system.
The provincial association is the product of the last round of the reform of the rural credit cooperatives.
The Circular of the State Council on Printing and Distributing the Pilot Program for Deepening the Reform of Rural Credit Cooperatives in 2003 made it clear that with the overall goal of clarifying property rights relations and strengthening restraint mechanisms, the reform of the credit cooperative management system and property rights system was accelerated, and the management of credit cooperatives was handed over to the local government. .
The provincial associations, which are composed of grass-roots rural credit cooperatives from bottom to top, and which are also responsible for the top-down industry management functions of the provincial government, began to play an important role in the reform and development of the rural credit system.
With the deepening of the reform of the rural credit cooperatives, the disadvantages of the provincial cooperatives' management model have become increasingly apparent.
On the one hand, the top-down management function and bottom-up property rights relationship make it unnecessary for the provincial association to be directly responsible for the operating results of the rural credit institution; Shangduo is appointed by the Provincial Associated Press, and its management ideas are not determined by itself based on the region where the institution is located and the specific circumstances.
It is also common for provincial associations to transfer senior management of rural credit institutions across regions. This behavior ignores the existence of rural credit institutions as independent legal persons, and it is difficult to promote the long-term corporate governance and internal control management of the institutions.
The management mode of provincial federations is also prone to the phenomenon of administrative intervention in operation and management, which is not conducive to the improvement of corporate governance and market mechanism of rural credit institutions.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of China Merchants Union Finance, said that there are four types of reform directions and modes of provincial association reform: one is to establish a rural commercial bank with a unified legal person, the other is to transform into a financial service company, and the third is to restructure into a rural commercial bank Bank holding company, and the fourth is to set up a provincial-level agricultural and commercial joint bank.
Dong Ximiao believes that the transformation of the provincial association into a financial service company will help improve the professional services for rural credit institutions and promote the independent operation of rural credit institutions.
However, this weakens the management function of the industry, and the service function will be difficult to implement, and it is not conducive to the "small to fail" of small legal person institutions.
The transformation of the provincial association into a holding company of a rural commercial bank, with the holding company taking a stake in the rural credit institution, is the most thorough reform model, which not only solves the paradox of the relationship between property rights and control rights, straightens out the corporate governance mechanism, but also does not waver County legal person status.
However, this model requires qualified sponsoring shareholders and capital, and the actual operation is difficult.
The transformation of the provincial association into a provincial-level rural and commercial joint bank, while maintaining the status of the two-level legal person, applies for business qualifications and licenses, and enhances service content and capabilities, which is a relatively optimized model.
The Zhejiang Rural Commercial Union Bank was approved to open, indicating that the provincial-level rural and commercial bank model has been recognized.
The relevant person in charge of the Zhejiang Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau introduced that the established Zhejiang Rural Commercial Union Bank, as the industry management bank and joint service bank of the province's rural credit institutions, manages party building, direction, management within the scope of the authorization of the provincial party committee and the provincial government. Risks, excellent guidance, and do not interfere with the specific personnel, finance, business and other daily operation and management of rural credit institutions.
However, many industry insiders said that the existing reform model cannot be copied.
By the end of 2021, there were 2,196 rural credit institutions in my country, accounting for 47.7% of banking financial institutions.
The regional economic and financial development in my country is significantly different, and the management and development stages of rural credit institutions in different provinces are different.
"The reform should respect the reasonable needs of local party committees and governments, and implement tailored reform models and plans according to the conditions of different provinces, so as to better meet the needs of local rural credit institutions for risk mitigation and development. The financial management department should also strengthen the management of rural credit The top-level design and guidance of social reform, and clarify the basic rules and requirements that need to be followed in reform." Dong Ximiao said.
Optimizing the supply of agriculture-related finance
Promoting the high-quality development of rural finance also needs to guide more financial institutions to serve the countryside.
Notice of the General Office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission on the key tasks of comprehensively promoting rural revitalization in 2022 with banking and insurance services, proposing to optimize the system and mechanism of agricultural-related financial supply.
Among them, large and medium-sized commercial banks should combine their business expertise to provide rural financial services; increase the expansion of first-time lenders, provide more financial services to customers who have not obtained loans from banks before, and actively fill the gap in the rural financial service market; Reasonably decentralize the credit approval authority, and raise the loan-to-deposit ratio in the county to a reasonable level.
Zhang Qingsong, president of the Agricultural Bank of China, said that the Agricultural Bank of China has made every effort to become a leading bank serving rural revitalization, and the advantages of ABC's "Sannong" county business have been further highlighted. As of the end of 2021, the relevant loan balance was 6.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 913 billion yuan, and a growth rate of 913 billion yuan. 17.2%, the balance accounted for 36% of all loans, and the proportion of incremental growth balance reached a new high in the past ten years.
Loans to key areas of rural revitalization have a good momentum, with the growth rates of loans for food security, rural industries and rural construction reaching 17%, 20.6% and 14.8% respectively.
Solid results were achieved in serving and consolidating the achievements in poverty alleviation. The growth rate of rural loans in 832 poverty alleviation counties and 160 countries was 14.2% and 15% respectively, both higher than the average growth rate of loans across the Bank.
The digital village financial service has achieved remarkable results. The balance of online farmer loans and Huinong e-loans reached 5,444.7 billion yuan, a growth rate of 54%, and served 3.68 million farmer households.
Postal Savings Bank accelerated the construction of a rural credit system, explored an active credit granting mechanism based on agricultural and rural big data, promoted an online service model with small quotas, wide coverage, and pure credit, and was committed to building a digital ecological bank serving rural revitalization.
Data shows that by the end of 2021, the bank's agricultural loan balance was 1.61 trillion yuan, accounting for a quarter of all loans; 190,800 credit villages were built, and 3,636,400 credit users were rated.
Liu Huanxin, deputy director of the Central Agricultural Office and director of the National Rural Revitalization Bureau, said: "The consolidation and expansion of poverty alleviation achievements are effectively linked with rural revitalization, and the financial system has great potential. The National Rural Revitalization Bureau will encourage and promote financial institutions, focusing on stable income growth of the poverty-stricken population and characteristic industries. Accelerated development, steady progress in rural construction, key counties for national rural revitalization and centralized resettlement areas for relocation to make up for the shortcomings of development, and continue to increase financial support."
"Follow-up financial institutions need to focus on the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, actively serve the national strategy, and provide financial services around rural infrastructure construction and agricultural industrialization," said Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China.