Banks speed up the settlement of early repayment of housing loans, and it is difficult to refinance in violation of regulations. Be vigilant

　　Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, February 22.

　　Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter

　　The appointment time is long, and there are many traps for refinancing... Recently, the topic of difficulty in repaying housing loans in advance has attracted attention.

The People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission held a meeting a few days ago, requiring commercial banks to improve their service quality and provide customers with early repayment services in accordance with the contract.

　　The reporter of "Xinhua Viewpoint" learned that a number of banks have recently issued notices to their branches, requiring them to strengthen the concept of customer-centricity and respond to customers' repayment demands in a timely manner.

Speed ​​up response to consumer demands, banks improve service quality

　　On February 15, Ms. Guo, a citizen of Xi'an, received a notification from ICBC that she could go to the branch to go through the formalities of early repayment of housing loans.

"It was said a while ago that you have to wait in line for a month to apply." Ms. Guo said.

　　A few days ago, the People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission held a symposium for some commercial banks, requiring commercial banks to strengthen the concept of customer-centricity, protect the legitimate rights and interests of customers, improve service quality, and do a good job in customer prepayment services in accordance with the contract.

　　"Before the bank notified that the repayment in advance was scheduled for 3 months. During this period of time, the interest expense alone was close to 10,000 yuan. I hope that the queuing time will be shortened after the supervision is released, and it will help me save some interest." It was too ideal, and Ms. Zhu, a citizen of Zhuhai, decided to use 600,000 yuan of working capital in her hand for early repayment.

　　At the beginning of this year, many existing mortgages have undergone re-pricing. The LPR linked to existing mortgages with a term of more than 5 years has dropped by 35 basis points last year, but some home buyers feel that this decline is still lower than the decline in the interest rate of newly issued mortgages.

Coupled with the decline in asset-side investment yields, many home buyers choose to repay their loans in advance to reduce debt pressure.

　　However, repaying the loan early is not easy.

In the face of more and more demands for early repayment, some banks have canceled the function of mobile banking for early repayment, requiring that they must go to the offline branch of the mortgage to apply.

Some banks have adjusted the charging standard for liquidated damages for early repayment, and clearly require that the liquidated damages be 1% of the total loan amount.

In areas where the demand for repayment is concentrated, some banks take a long time to make an appointment for early repayment, and some queue up for two to three months or even half a year.

　　With the notices of many banks such as Gongnong Zhongjian reaching all branches, the difficulty of early repayment is gradually being resolved.

　　The reporter visited a number of banks in Shanghai and learned that most banks in Shanghai currently have no backlog of customers, some banks can apply one month in advance according to the contract, and the queuing time of individual large state-owned banks with a relatively high proportion of housing loans is compressed within 3 months.

　　Dong Ximiao, a researcher at the Institute of Finance at Fudan University, said that the financial management department attaches great importance to the difficulty of early repayment and responds to borrowers' demands in a timely manner, which will help protect the legitimate rights and interests of borrowers.

Commercial banks should start from fulfilling their social responsibilities, improving customer experience, etc., and provide more convenience for borrowers to repay their loans in advance on the basis of contractual agreements.

There are many traps in illegal refinancing, borrowers should "keep their eyes open"

　　"Replace the high-interest housing loan with a 3.45% business loan. A housing loan of 1 million yuan can save 200,000 yuan in interest in 10 years. We can handle the procedures for you..." A few days ago, Mr. Liu, a citizen of Guangzhou, received a call from a self-proclaimed "loan intermediary". The sales call, the temptation of a large interest rate difference made him quite tempted.

　　As the interest rates of business loans and consumer loans continue to fall, some unscrupulous intermediaries claim to borrowers that they can "refinance and reduce interest rates", inducing consumers to use intermediary bridge funds to settle their mortgages, and then go to the bank to apply for business loans or consumer loans to return the bridge funds .

"Behind this lies hidden dangers of breach of contract and law. Problems such as high fee traps and the risk of capital chain breaks cannot be ignored." Dong Ximiao said.

　　According to relevant regulatory regulations, operating loans must be used for production and operation turnover.

A staff member of ICBC Hangzhou Gudun Road Sub-branch told the reporter that after the on-lending operation, if the bank finds that the operating loan funds have not been used in accordance with the contract, the borrower will bear the responsibility for breach of contract. will be affected.

　　The reporter learned that when illegal intermediaries "help" borrowers apply for business loans, they often obtain loan qualifications by forging transaction records and packaging shell companies. They are suspected of defrauding bank loans, and borrowers may even be held accountable for relevant legal responsibilities.

　　In addition, the bridge fund interest rate is often hidden tricks.

Industry insiders told reporters that unscrupulous intermediaries will encourage borrowers to use the intermediary bridge funds to repay the remaining mortgages, and charge high fees in various names such as advance bridge interest, service fees, and handling fees.

Borrowers who fell into the trap step by step finally discovered that the comprehensive capital cost after refinancing may be higher than the original mortgage interest rate.

　　"Once the application for a business loan or a consumer loan fails, the borrower will not only have to bear the pressure of repaying the bridge funds with high interest rates, but also bear the high fees of the intermediary agency." A person from the Consumer Rights Protection Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission told reporters. , Business loans and consumer loans have short terms, and most of the principal needs to be repaid in one go. If the borrower does not have a stable source of funds, the loan cannot repay the principal in time after the loan expires, which may cause the risk of capital chain rupture.

　　At present, the financial management department and relevant local departments have paid attention to the risk of illegal on-lending.

The Shenzhen Real Estate Intermediary Association issued a reminder in early February that real estate intermediaries are strictly prohibited from inducing house buyers to use funds for business purposes in violation of regulations.

　　At the symposium, the People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission clearly requested that commercial banks should continue to do a good job in pre-loan and post-loan management, and strengthen risk warnings; they also proposed to further increase inspection and punishment, promptly investigate and deal with illegal intermediaries and disclose typical cases.

Multiple measures to stabilize expectations and provide strong support for accelerating economic recovery

　　"The most direct way to judge whether it is necessary to repay a personal mortgage in advance is to see whether the investment income can cover the loan interest." Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of the International Joint Business School of Zhejiang University, believes that with the 2023 my country's macro The economy is stabilizing and picking up, and the policies of the stock market and the property market are blowing frequently. Some residents' investment expectations will change, and they will consider prepayment more rationally and prudently.

　　In order to promote the normal cycle of real estate and finance, the financial management department launched the "Sixteen Financial Measures" in November last year, proposing a number of measures to support the reasonable needs of individual housing loans.

　　At the beginning of this year, the People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission announced the establishment of the first set of dynamic adjustment mechanism for housing loan interest rate policy, which clearly linked the housing loan interest rate policy with the price trend of new housing.

The financial management department also put forward requirements in terms of reasonably determining the down payment ratio of individual housing loans, optimizing housing financial services for new citizens, improving the convenience of borrowing and repayment, and guiding financial institutions to do related work.

　　Experts believe that these measures have played a certain role in stabilizing the confidence and expectations of home buyers.

The data shows that in January 2023, the medium and long-term loans of the household sector, which are dominated by personal housing mortgage loans, increased by 223.1 billion yuan, an increase of more than 30 billion yuan from the previous month in December 2022.

　　"A series of measures launched by the financial sector are gradually effective, which will further boost residents' willingness and ability to invest and consume." Dong Ximiao believes that effective measures taken by the financial sector to solve the difficulty of repaying housing loans in advance will help stabilize market expectations and confidence. Provide strong support for the recovery and expansion of consumption and the acceleration of economic recovery.

(Reporters Wu Yu, Wei Weihua, Gu Xiaoli, Zhang Jingpin, Zheng Juntian)