Battle for Deposits at Chinese Banks Raises Concerns
中资银行竞相揽储引发担忧
To boost their deposit levels ahead of an expected year-end regulatory review, Chinese banks have recently accelerated their sales of high-yield investment products to customers, raising new concerns about the financial system and spurring the government to step up its oversight of the products.
为了在年底例行的监管审查开始前提高存款水平，中资银行近来加快了向客户出售高收益投资产品的速度。这再次令外界开始关注中国金融系统，并促使政府加强对理财产品的监管力度。
Since late last month, banks of all sizes have increased their competition to attract deposits from middle-class savers by offering so-called wealth-management products. These WMPs, typically investment vehicles maturing in one year or less, pay much higher interest rates than regular bank deposits. Executives at some Chinese banks say they are now launching new WMPs daily, much more frequently than prior to the recent push.
自上月底以来，各类规模的银行加大了彼此间的竞争，通过发行所谓理财产品来吸引中产阶级储户的存款。和普通银行存款相比，这些理财产品支付的利率要高得多，其投资期限通常在一年或一年以下。一些中资银行的高管说，它们现在每天都会推出新的理财产品，和之前相比发行节奏要频繁得多。
Chinese bankers say there were similar races in the past, ahead of scheduled regulatory reviews of their loan-to-deposit ratios, but this year the competition is fiercer because banks are facing tighter funding conditions. Both bank lending and the broadest measure of money supply, M2, came in below analysts' expectations for November, data released Tuesday show, adding to concerns about a liquidity crunch as the year draws to a close.
中资银行表示，此前也有类似竞争，都是在监管机构对贷存比指标进行例行考核之前，但今年竞争尤为激烈，因为银行正面临更为紧张的资金状况。周二公布的数据显示，11月的银行贷款和衡量货币供应量的最广泛指标M2均低于分析师预期。这加大了外界对年末出现流动性紧张状况的担忧。
The rapidly growing WMP market is causing concern among regulators. WMPs are pools of stocks, bonds, currencies or loans, repackaged by banks and marketed to their customers, much as mortgages were repackaged into securities for investors in the U.S. before the financial crisis.
迅速发展的理财产品市场正在引发监管机构的担忧。理财产品由股票、债券、外汇或贷款组成，银行将这些资产重新打包并销售给客户。这类似金融危机前美资银行将抵押贷款打包成各类证券销售给美国投资者。
Fitch Ratings estimates that as much as half of the deposit growth in China is now generated through WMPs. It forecasts that by the end of the year the outstanding balance of such products will reach 13 trillion yuan, or about $2 trillion─roughly 14.5% of total deposits in the country.
惠誉国际评级(Fitch Ratings)估计，中国目前的存款增量中多达一半是通过理财产品创造的。惠誉预计到年底前理财产品余额将达到人民币13万亿元（约合2万亿美元），在中国存款总额中占比约为14.5%。
On Tuesday, the China Banking Association, an industry group backed by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, formed a committee to step up oversight of the WMP business. According to a statement posted on the Chinese government's website, CBRC official Du Jinfu said the committee will play a role in regulating the business and ensuring its 'healthy development.'
中国银行业监督管理委员会(China Banking Regulatory Commission, 简称：银监会)支持的一个银行业自律组织中国银行业协会(China Banking Association)周二成立理财业务专业委员会，以加强对理财产品的监管。中国政府网站发布的一则消息说，中国银监会官员杜金富说，理财业务专业委员会将对进一步规范银行理财市场、促进银行理财业务健康发展产生积极的促进和推动作用。
This latest WMP push, banking executives and analysts say, was driven by an expected year-end regulatory review of banks' loan-to-deposit ratio, a measure of liquidity.
银行高管和分析师表示，最近这轮理财产品销售热潮是受年末监管机构例行考核银行贷存比指标的推动。贷存比衡量的是银行流动性状况。
'Banks want to make sure that they have enough deposits at hand to meet regulatory requirements, and the most common practice to compete for deposits is through selling WMPs,' said Zhu Chaoping, head of research at ChinaScope Financial, a research and data firm partly owned by Moody's Corp. Funds put into WMPs don't count as bank deposits immediately. But at maturity they are moved into traditional savings accounts, beefing up the deposit base. Many of these products are timed to mature when banks need higher deposit levels, such as at the end of each quarter.
数库(ChinaScope Financial)研究主管朱超平说，银行想要确保他们手中有足够存款满足监管要求，竞相揽储的最常见手段就是销售理财产品。穆迪(Moody's Corp)部分拥有数库这家研究和数据公司。买入理财产品的资金并不会马上被算作银行存款。但理财产品到期时会转入传统储蓄账户，这样银行存款余额会上升。很多理财产品的到期时间经过准确计算，以确保其到期时间恰好为银行需要提高存款水平的时候，比如每个季度末。
'It's extremely difficult for banks to attract deposits,' said Li Jian, an executive at China Everbright Bank Co. 601818.SH +0.37% A bank not offering 'good WMPs,' he said, would risk losing depositors to banks that are.
中国光大银行(China Everbright Bank Co.CN:601818+0.74%)高管李建（音）说，银行想要吸储非常困难。他说，如果一家银行发行的理财产品不行，那么它有可能流失储户。
Chinese banks currently offer an annualized interest rate of between 4% and 6% on WMPs that mature in one to six months. On traditional deposits, the rates they can offer are limited by a central-bank benchmark─which right now means they top out at 2.86% on three-month deposits and 3.08% on six-month deposits.
中资银行目前提供一个月到六个月期限的理财产品，年化利率在4%到6%之间。传统存款利率受限于央行设定的基准，目前三月期存款利率最高为2.86%，六月期存款利率最高3.08%。
The main concern among regulators is banks' ability to make good on the principal and interest owed to investors in WMPs, whose risks are often poorly disclosed to investors. Some of the money going into these products has been used to make high-interest loans to risky private businesses shunned by the banks themselves, a phenomenon critics say could exaggerate loan and investment losses in China's financial system if an economic slowdown led to widespread defaults.
监管层主要是担心银行偿付理财产品投资者本息的能力。这些产品的风险常常没有向投资者充分披露。投进理财产品的部分资金被拿去向银行自己避之唯恐不及的高风险民营企业发放高息贷款。批评者说，如果经济放缓引起大范围违约，这种现象可能就会加大中国金融系统的贷款和投资损失。
Such fears have been exacerbated by the recent collapse of a 140 million yuan WMP offered through a Shanghai branch of Huaxia Bank Co., 600015.SH +0.11% which ranks 13th among China's commercial banks by assets. Proceeds were invested by a third-party private-equity firm in four businesses in the inland province of Henan, including a pawn shop.
华夏银行CN:600015+0.98%上海一家支行销售的一款规模为人民币1.4亿元理财产品在前不久违约，让这些担心进一步放大。按资产规模计算，华夏银行在中国的商业银行里面排在第13位。产品筹集的资金被一家第三方私募公司投进了内陆省份河南的四家公司，其中包括一家典当行。
Investors were promised returns of between 11% and 13%, but when the one-year product matured late last month, they weren't paid back─triggering days of protests by dozens of investors and an intervention by Shanghai authorities. The bank is now negotiating with investors to try to reach a 'reasonable solution,' said people with direct knowledge of the matter.
产品给投资者承诺的回报率是11%到13%，但这款一年期产品在上个月底到期之时却没有偿付，引起数十名投资者多天的抗议和上海有关部门的干涉。知情人士说，银行方面正在跟投资者协商，希望达成一个“合理的解决方案”。
Having to share or repay investors' losses for WMPs 'would be very negative for banks, as it means banks would face potential contingent liabilities for all off-balance-sheet products,' said analyst May Yan at Barclays Capital.
巴克莱资本(Barclays Capital)分析师颜湄之(May Yan)说，如果必须分担或赔偿投资者投资理财产品的损失，这对银行来说将是非常负面的，因为它意味着银行有可能因为各种表外产品而承担一系列责任。
The potential risk for banks is that they usually invest the proceeds from the sale of the WMPs in loans or securities with longer maturities than the products themselves. In normal times, when products mature, banks either persuade customers to roll over their investments into new WMPs, or banks pay out using funds raised from the sale of new products. But that strategy could backfire if demand for new products drops and banks don't have enough money to pay holders of maturing products.
银行可能面临的风险在于，它们通常把销售理财产品获得的资金投资于期限长于产品本身的贷款或证券。在正常时期，当产品到期的时候，银行要么是劝说客户展期，置换为新的理财产品，要么是利用出售新产品筹集的资金还钱。但如果新产品需求下降，银行没有足够资金偿付到期产品的持有人，那么这一策略可能就会引火烧身。
Among the array of WMPs sold by Chinese banks recently is a three-month product issued by China Citic Bank Corp., 601998.SH -0.78% the country's seventh-largest lender by assets. On a minimum investment of 200,000 yuan ($32,000), it advertised an annualized return of 4.8%─and sold out within hours of being issued Monday, according to Citic representatives.
在中资银行最近出售的各种理财产品当中，有一款是资产规模全国第七的中信银行(China Citic Bank Corp.CN:601998+0.52%)发行的一款三月期产品。该产品的最低投资金额是人民币20万元，广告上打出的年化回报率为4.8%。据中信银行的代表说，产品在周一发行后数小时之内就一售而空。
A prospectus includes standard risk disclosures and a general explanation of the types of investments in which proceeds from the product will be placed, including bonds and loans. But it doesn't specify what projects or companies the funds will be used for.
产品章程上包括标准的风险披露，以及对所筹资金拟投资产品种类（如债券和贷款）的一般解释。但它没有具体说明资金将用于哪些项目或公司。
One of the investors who bought is Zhong Tao, a 62-year-old retiree who said that after years of having savings accounts she withdrew all her money and now rolls it out of one WMP and into another.
62岁的退休人士钟桃（音）购买了这款产品。她说，在存款多年之后，她把所有的钱都取了出来，在不同理财产品之间不断置换。
她说，存款利率这么低，通胀率那么高，不这样做我傻呀。
'With deposit rates so low and inflation so high,' Ms. Zhong said, 'I would be stupid not to do this.'
WSJ
2012-12-12
WSJ
418次
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