The reporter learned from the website of the central bank on March 4th that the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance and China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission held a symposium and video conference on financial support for epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development on March 3rd, and put forward a number of work requirements for the next stage, involving prudent monetary policy, more emphasis on flexibility and moderation, and strengthening the financial service capacity building of small and micro enterprises. This is another important deployment of the relevant regulatory authorities in the recent period to make financial efforts to stabilize the economy.
recently, the central bank, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and other departments have issued a number of important documents, deploying financial support for epidemic prevention and control and resuming production. According to industry insiders, a number of financial policies that have recently landed in succession have emphasized the precise support for key enterprises for epidemic prevention and control and small and medium-sized enterprises while promoting the "expansion of total credit". At the same time, the real estate financial policy will adhere to the tone of "housing and not speculating" and maintain continuity, consistency and stability.
Policy urges credit supply to "increase in quantity and decrease in price"
The symposium on financial support for epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development and the TV and telephone conference emphasized that the financial sector should put support for the recovery and development of the real economy in a more prominent position, increase credit supply, and take practical measures to tap the potential, benefit enterprises, reduce financing costs and help enterprises tide over the difficulties under the principle of legalization and marketization. The meeting proposed that a prudent monetary policy should pay more attention to flexibility and moderation, maintain a reasonable and sufficient liquidity, improve the macro-prudential evaluation system, and release the reform potential of LPR.
increasing credit supply and reducing financing costs have become the focus of current financial policies. In terms of expanding credit supply capacity, the central bank comprehensively uses tools such as medium-term lending facilities, open market operations, and standing lending facilities to meet the liquidity needs of financial institutions to support enterprises to resume work and production. China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, alone or in conjunction with relevant ministries and commissions, has successively issued a number of financial service documents for epidemic prevention and control, urged banks and insurance institutions to open up green channels for financial services, ensure the supply of credit resources, and fully meet the reasonable financing needs of epidemic prevention and control enterprises, and requested that wholesale and retail, accommodation and catering, logistics and transportation, cultural tourism and other industries that are greatly affected by the epidemic should not be allowed.
in terms of reducing financing costs, the central bank has guided LPR downward by lowering MLF interest rate, open market operation reverse repo rate and other policy interest rates. At the same time, the central bank also set up a special refinancing loan of 311 billion yuan, which was subsidized by the finance to ensure that the loan interest rate of key anti-epidemic enterprises was lower than 1.6%. Recently, the central bank increased the special amount for rediscounting loans for supporting agriculture and supporting small enterprises by 511 billion yuan, and lowered the interest rate of refinancing loans for supporting agriculture and supporting small enterprises by 1.25 percentage point to 2.5%.
with the rapid implementation of the policy, the trend of "quantity increases and price decreases" in credit supply is obvious. According to the latest data of the Banking Association, at present, the total credit support of banking financial institutions to fight the epidemic exceeds 1.25 trillion yuan, and at the same time, the capital cost burden of key enterprises has also dropped significantly. Taking policy banks as an example, by the end of February, the Agricultural Development Bank had approved loans of RMB 18.158 billion to national key enterprises in the list of 242 central banks, and granted qualified loans to 219 enterprises, with a weighted average interest rate of RMB 11.165 billion, which was 61 basis points lower than the upper limit of preferential interest rate.
Focus on small and medium-sized enterprises with precise policies
According to industry insiders, the "expansion of the total amount" of credit to deal with the epidemic is not flooding. Wen Bin, chief researcher of Minsheng Bank, said that the recent "total expansion" of credit has obvious directional and structural characteristics, so the release of funds is not flooding, but more emphasis is placed on investing funds in key enterprises for epidemic prevention and control and small and medium-sized enterprises, which will help enterprises to resume work and production, and the economy will run smoothly.
The above-mentioned symposium and teleconference on financial support for epidemic prevention, control and economic and social development clearly stated that "provide fast and accurate support for enterprises engaged in epidemic prevention and control", "increase financial support for regions, industries and enterprises with serious epidemic impact, and strengthen financial services for key areas and weak links such as advanced manufacturing, poverty alleviation and people's livelihood employment" and "increase inclusive financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises".
in the past 21 days, the State Council held four executive meetings, all of which mentioned supporting enterprises to resume their work and production. In particular, financial institutions were required to increase credit supply to small and medium-sized enterprises, increase the issuance of special financial bonds for small and medium-sized enterprises, and strengthen medium-and long-term loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, without blindly withdrawing loans.
in order to encourage banks to give loans to small and micro enterprises, China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission has recently made temporary adjustments to the identification of bad loans. On March 1, five ministries and commissions, including China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, issued the Notice on Temporary Delay in Repayment of Debt and Interest on Loans to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, requiring that the banking financial institutions should grant enterprises a temporary delay in repayment of debt and interest for a certain period according to their applications, for the loan principal due from October 25, 2121 and the loan interest to be paid by small and medium-sized enterprises from October 25 to June 31, 2121. The notice also stressed that for loans with temporary postponement of repayment of principal and interest, banking financial institutions should adhere to substantive risk judgment, not downgrade the loan risk classification due to epidemic factors, and not affect corporate credit records.
In an interview with the Economic Information Daily, the relevant person in charge of the Agricultural Development Bank also said that in the annual loan plan approved by the central bank to the three policy banks, * * * took out 351 billion yuan as a special credit plan, and explicitly requested the three policy banks, including the Agricultural Development Bank, to support the small and medium-sized enterprises affected by the epidemic to resume work and production. The introduction of this policy can give full play to the special role of the Agricultural Development Bank as a policy bank as a forerunner, a short board and a counter-cycle, and incite other social funds to expand credit support for small and medium-sized enterprises to resume work and production.
Wang Qing, chief macro analyst of Oriental Jincheng, said that at present, small and medium-sized enterprises are generally facing liquidity shortage, and a series of financial measures will play a more obvious role in "emergency rescue" to alleviate the negative impact of the epidemic on the survival and operation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the short term.
Real estate financial policies will remain consistent and stable
It is worth noting that the above-mentioned symposium on financial support for epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, as well as the TV and telephone conference, also clearly stated that we should adhere to the positioning that houses are used for living, not for speculation, and the requirement of "not using real estate as a short-term means to stimulate the economy" to maintain the continuity, consistency and stability of real estate financial policies.
recently, the real estate policies in some places have been adjusted, and the down payment ratio of individual banks to some customers in some areas has been lowered, which has triggered speculation about the loosening of real estate financial policies in the market. "Judging from the statement of the meeting, the overall tone of real estate finance has not changed, and the adjustment of individual banks has not broken through the policy bottom line." Wen Bin said.
on March 1, the benchmark conversion of floating interest rate loans was started as scheduled. According to the special requirements put forward by the central bank for the conversion of mortgage pricing benchmark, the interest rate level of existing commercial personal housing loans should remain unchanged at the time of conversion, which is mainly to implement the requirements of real estate market regulation.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of Xinwang Bank, said that China's market liquidity will continue to be in a reasonable and abundant state, and the market interest rate is expected to further decline. In this case, the mortgage interest rate may have some downside. However, the more favorable mortgage interest rate will mainly focus on the first home loan, aiming at reducing the burden on those who just need to buy houses, while higher interest rates will still be implemented for the second and above mortgages.