Although the industry has been soliciting opinions for a long time, the release time of the new regulations on online small loans still makes most people feel that it exceeds expectations.
Some insiders believe that the release of the Interim Measures directly triggered the suspension of the IPO of Ant Group. 165438+1On the evening of October 3, the Shanghai Stock Exchange pointed out in its announcement that one of the reasons for its decision to suspend the IPO of Ant Group was that "the regulatory environment for financial technology has changed".
The Interim Measures "stopped" the world's largest IPO when it first appeared, but its influence was not limited to ants. In the eyes of some insiders, Big Technology and its joint loan business similar to Ant Group are greatly affected by the Interim Measures.
Strict license supervision, under the rules of financial risk control, enriching capital and shrinking leverage is a prominent principle of the Interim Measures. This will reshape the operating rules and business logic of the small loan industry. Many parties in the industry will bear the pressure of rising compliance costs: Is the joint loan business promoted by large-scale technology platforms still a good business? Will the online small loan license be upstaged by consumer finance, or even generate new regulatory arbitrage? P2P people who have just experienced life-and-death robbery and walked on the road of small loan transformation have once again been hit by policies. Where is the way?
The Interim Measures limit the leverage ratio of external financing of online small loan business of small loan companies to five times, that is, the balance of non-standard financing (bank loans, shareholder loans, etc.). ) the online small loan company shall not be 1 times of its net assets; Standardized financing balance (bonds, asset securitization products, etc.). ) shall not exceed 4 times the net assets. At the same time, in a single joint loan, the proportion of small loan companies operating online small loan business shall not be less than 30%.
Previously, since joint loans were not included in the scope of leverage, the leverage ratio was not calculated through asset-backed securities (ABS). Therefore, some online small loan companies use low registered capital to incite excessive loan scale, and so does Ant Group.
According to the prospectus of Ant Group, in the first half of 2020, the micro-loan technology platform of Ant Group contributed a credit balance of 2 2. 1.5 trillion yuan. Among them, the total balance of consumer credit represented by Bai Hua and Bai Jie (mainly Chongqing Ant Microfinance Co., Ltd. and Chongqing Ant Shangcheng Microfinance Co., Ltd.) is 1.73 trillion yuan. It is worth noting that in the credit balance contributed by the microfinance technology platform, the total proportion of financial institutions actually issuing loans or realizing asset securitization is about 98%.
"Our business model is not to use our own balance sheet to carry out credit business and provide no guarantee." Ant Group emphasized in the prospectus.
According to the requirements of the Interim Measures for Joint Loans, that is to say, if a loan of 1 trillion is released, Ant Group needs to take out 300 billion of its own funds to issue loans. According to the industry's preliminary estimation, according to the current credit balance scale and regulatory requirements, Ant Group needs to increase the registered capital of its small loan companies to 1000 billion yuan, and only one of the two small loan companies can be retained (in terms of equity management, the Interim Measures require that no more than two investors, their related parties and concerted actions are major shareholders, or no more than one holding small loan company operating across provinces).
"The core is to increase the proportion of its own funds, so that if there is a risk, the ants themselves have to bear a lot of risks. In this way, enterprises like ants can conduct business more cautiously and reduce the possible losses of financial institutions. " Some senior people in the financial industry believe that the direct impact of this is to reduce the efficiency of capital use. The larger the scale of lending, the higher the capital requirements, while the profit rate of funds will remain at a certain level, which will not change with the scale enlargement, and the profit-making effect will be greatly reduced.
Microfinance expert Ji said that the interim measures will also put pressure on Daxin Technology, which conducts similar joint loan business. "The draft of the Interim Measures has actually been brewing for several drafts. This time, it was announced in advance before the promulgation of the upper-level laws such as the Regulations on Non-deposit Lending Organizations. It is really because financial technology is running too fast, and supervision has certain concerns and is necessary. "
It is worth noting that at the the State Council policy briefing held on June 6 165438+, Liu Fushou, chief lawyer of the CBRC, said that while supporting the financial industry to make reasonable innovations under the premise of controllable risks, the CBRC insisted that innovation should serve and contribute to the real economy. According to the financial nature of financial technology, all financial activities will be brought into a unified supervision scope.
With the promulgation of the Interim Measures, many people in the industry believe that the "gold content" of online small loan licenses has shrunk, so it is better to apply for a small online loan license.
According to the "Interim Measures", small loan companies operating online small loans should mainly be carried out in the provincial administrative region where they are registered; Without the approval of the State Council Banking Regulatory Authority, microfinance companies may not carry out network microfinance business across provincial administrative regions. For a small number of small loan companies that need to carry out network small loan business across provincial administrative regions, the the State Council Banking Regulatory Authority is responsible for examination and approval, supervision and management and risk disposal.
This means that the supervision will accept the approval right to operate online small loan licenses nationwide. Previously, the authority was in the hands of local financial supervision, but due to the different scales of local supervision, market chaos occurred frequently (such as the "cash loan" business carried out by some institutions).
2017165438+10.21The Office of the Leading Group for Special Remediation of Internet Financial Risks urgently issued the Notice on Immediately Suspending the Examination and Approval of Internet Small Loan Companies, requiring all provinces in China to suspend the examination and approval of Internet small loan licenses.
According to incomplete statistics of online loans, as of 20171and 2 1, there are 249 online small loan licenses in the market, of which 229 have completed industrial and commercial registration, and 20 have passed the publicity period but have not yet completed industrial and commercial registration. From a regional perspective, the number of online small loan licenses is mainly concentrated in Guangdong, Chongqing and Jiangxi, and the number of licenses obtained in these three regions is 54, 43 and 20 respectively.
"It is completely meaningless for online small loans to conduct business in a province, and online small loans need to be approved by the China Banking Regulatory Commission if they want to be exhibited nationwide. That is to say, this license, like consumer finance companies, is directly approved by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and the threshold and difficulty are comprehensively improved." Yan said bluntly.
According to the "Interim Measures", the registered capital of microfinance companies that operate online microfinance business across provincial administrative regions is not less than 5 billion yuan, and it is a one-time paid-in monetary capital. Compared with the registration threshold of 300 million yuan for consumer companies, and the fact that the assets of consumer companies can be released as long as they don't hold bad loans after listing through ABS (asset-backed securities), which is not within the calculation range of leverage ratio, the significance of obtaining an Internet small loan license has been weaker than that of consumer companies.
Ji further pointed out that internet micro-loans will only be a very small number for the national exhibition industry, and will not be a universal license. Need a one-time paid-in capital of 5 billion, basically not much in the country. Moreover, due to the limitation of leverage ratio, the arbitrage space disappears, and it is of little significance to get this license. This means that Internet small loan licenses will probably become very few licenses, and most companies will face transformation, transfer or withdrawal.
Under the above background, there may be "uneven hot and cold" in the licenses of online small loans and consumer companies, and some insiders worry that there will be new regulatory arbitrage.
In the quarter, consumer finance companies have been under the supervision of the China Banking Regulatory Commission and are licensed financial institutions. If the unlimited leverage of funds through joint loans is cancelled, the CBRC will definitely take action, for example, it can be strengthened by supplementary provisions or window guidance.
"It is necessary for the regulatory authorities to consider appropriately relaxing the entry threshold for small and micro enterprises' Internet loans. There is no regulatory arbitrage space between this business and the cancellation of licenses, which is also in line with the state's policy direction of supporting small and micro enterprises and helping industries. " Yan said.
Previously, the Supreme Law adjusted the upper limit of judicial protection of private lending interest rate to four times the one-year loan market quotation (LPR) announced on the 20th of each month. Whether small loan companies belong to "financial institutions" in the definition of private lending was controversial at that time.
The determination of the status of small loan companies will also depend on the implementation of relevant laws and regulations.
On September 16 this year, the CBRC issued the Notice on Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Small Loan Companies, which set requirements for the business scope, external financing ratio, loan amount, business area and loan interest rate of small loan companies. The China Banking Regulatory Commission said that the next step will be to continuously strengthen the construction of the industry supervision system for microfinance companies, which will be linked with the implementation of the Regulations on Non-deposit Lending Organizations.
With the promulgation of the Interim Measures, the P2P platform of small loan companies applying for transformation is in an embarrassing situation.
According to the Guiding Opinions on Pilot Transformation of Information Intermediaries into Microfinance Companies in Peer-to-Peer Lending (hereinafter referred to as "Document No.83") issued on 20 19, online lending institutions that meet the requirements in terms of compliance, shareholders and transformation plan can choose to apply for transformation into a single provincial regional operation or national operation according to their business scope.
A small loan company operating in a single provincial region refers to a small loan company that conducts online or offline small loan business in the provincial administrative region (provincial refers to provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) where the company is domiciled. Small loan companies operating nationwide refer to small loan companies that carry out online small loan business.
It is worth noting that "No.83 Document" pointed out that the registered capital of the small loan company operating in a single provincial-level region to be established by the online lending institution to be transformed is not less than 50 million yuan; The registered capital of the national microfinance company to be established by the online lending institution to be transformed is not less than RMB 654.38+0 billion, and the paid-in monetary capital in the first phase is not less than RMB 500 million.
At the same time, if an application is made to transform into a small loan company operating in a single provincial region, specific local organizations will organize the pilot work of transformation; After applying for transformation into a national small loan company and reporting to the compliance evaluation opinions of the Office of the Leading Group for the Special Remediation of Peer-to-Peer Lending Risks and the Office of the Leading Group for the Special Remediation of Internet Financial Risks, the pilot work of transformation will be organized and implemented by various localities.
On September 14 this year, the relevant person in charge of the CBRC stressed at the news briefing of the CBRC that all localities should speed up the implementation of the pilot work of institutional transformation. "At present, some local online lending institutions have been approved to be transformed into small loan companies in the region, and relevant departments have also approved some local online lending institutions to be transformed into small loan companies operating nationwide. Under the premise of complying with laws and regulations, all localities should speed up the progress of transformation. "
On September 16, the CBRC also emphasized in the Notice on Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Small Loan Companies that the qualifications of institutions transformed according to Circular No.83 should be strictly examined and supervision should be strengthened afterwards.
But now these P2P platforms that are applying for transformation and have completed transformation are in an awkward position: they just meet the requirements of Circular No.83, should they re-apply according to the interim measures? However, the requirements of the Interim Measures for registered capital will probably discourage many P2P platforms seeking transformation.
Bi, a senior observer in the financial technology industry, bluntly said that the paid-in registered capital of 654.38 billion +0 billion in the Interim Measures is only "entry-level", and it is really too difficult to "upgrade" to do national business. At present, most transformed P2P companies are financial technology companies that mainly help with loans. However, from the perspective of market pricing trends and supervision, everyone wants to get a "license". To put it bluntly, everyone wants a "birthright".
"Without further clear policies, P2P transformation may still be implemented in accordance with Circular No.83. The requirements put forward in this Interim Measures may be more aimed at financial technology institutions that are already doing this in the context of large Internet companies." The above-mentioned insiders close to local supervision said.
Shao believes that small loan companies must meet the relevant requirements of the Interim Measures before applying for transformation into a P2P platform according to Circular 83, and there can be no differentiated supervision.
"In fact, this license plate doesn't have much' gold content' at the end. At most, it is to increase the convenience of the exhibition industry, not a' symbol of life and death'. Of course, if you can get it, it can at least represent the compliance status of the platform. " The person in charge of the above P2P platform revealed that it will develop into a pure lending platform in the future.