280 billion yuan in targeted support for small and micro enterprises
This targeted downgrade will release approximately 280 billion yuan in long-term funds, all of which will be used to issue loans to private and small and micro enterprises. Targeted reserve requirement ratio cuts can help further promote the establishment of policy frameworks. After the policy framework is formed, it helps small and medium-sized banks determine different levels of reserve requirements, which facilitates these banks to make longer-term arrangements for funds
On May 6th, the People's Bank of China decided to implement a lower reserve requirement ratio for small and medium-sized banks that focus on local areas and serve counties, starting from May 15th.
Unlike previous directional reserve requirement reductions, the scope of this directional reserve requirement reduction is more strictly limited. The central bank emphasized that for rural commercial banks that operate only within their own county-level administrative regions, or have branch offices in other county-level administrative regions but have assets of less than 10 billion yuan, the same level of reserve requirement ratio as rural credit cooperatives will be implemented, which is currently 8%. This means that about a thousand county-level rural commercial banks will face targeted reserve requirement ratio cuts, releasing long-term funds of about 280 billion yuan, all of which will be used to issue loans to private and small and micro enterprises.
Incremental funds will support agriculture and small businesses
After this reserve requirement ratio reduction, it is expected that our bank can release about 70 million yuan in funds, "said Yu Chang, General Manager of the Business Management Department of Zhejiang Yunhe Rural Commercial Bank. Yunhe Rural Commercial Bank's business scope is only in the county, and there are no branches in other regions, which should be within the scope of this reduction in reserve requirements.
Yu Chang stated that the incremental funds released from the reserve requirement ratio reduction will be entirely used for small and micro enterprise loans. Yu Chang introduced that this year is the "Private and Small and Micro Enterprise Financial Services Year" of Yunhe Rural Commercial Bank, which will mainly focus on visiting small and micro enterprises in local industrial parks. The annual goal is to achieve a visit rate of over 80%. At the same time, Zhejiang Yunhe Rural Commercial Bank will also reduce fees and benefits for small and micro enterprises, lowering financing costs by 10%.
The capital investment of county-level rural commercial banks with assets below 10 billion yuan is already in the fields of small and micro enterprises and agriculture, rural areas and farmers, "said Hong Quan, Vice President of Linhai Rural Commercial Bank. After the targeted reserve requirement ratio reduction, the bank will release about 900 million yuan of funds.
So, can this incremental funding truly help small and micro enterprises reduce their financing costs? Hong Quan believes that in recent years, bank interest rate spreads have been continuously narrowing, but county-level rural commercial banks have a mutually beneficial relationship with the local economy. In the current situation where enterprise operations are facing development bottlenecks, it is possible and appropriate for banks to give some benefits to enterprises.
The executive meeting of the State Council held on April 17th pointed out that the five state-owned large commercial banks that have established diplomatic relations between industry, agriculture, and China should take the lead in ensuring that the balance of small and micro enterprise loans increases by more than 30% this year, and the comprehensive financing cost of small and micro enterprise credit is further reduced by 1 percentage point on the basis of last year.
这意味着国有大行也开始发力小微领域，且其更具资金实力也更有成本优势。但与国有大行相比，中小银行与小微、“三农”、民营企业更“匹配”。 洪权认为，国有大行涉足小微领域是市场化竞争的一部分，带来的冲击农商行可以承受。并且，与大行多采取抵押贷款方式相比，中小银行经营模式更灵活，在小微信贷领域的长期耕耘，可以一定程度调整风险偏好，并更多使用信用贷款、担保等模式，可以与国有大行形成差异化竞争。
在降准资金支持之外，县域农商行也希望有更多配套政策向小银行倾斜。虞昶表示，希望能对农商行、农信社等，站在一线扶持民营小微企业“主力军”银行，给予其他配套政策扶持。洪权认为，在服务小微企业方面也要重视风险管控。鉴于小微民营企业的风险偏高，银行必须高度重视贷后管理。在配套支持方面，洪权也认为，除了银行自身的下沉与让利，在风险补偿方面需要有一定的激励措施，如财政补贴、加大担保力度等。
完善“三档式”政策框架
“希望这一政策长期可持续。”虞昶表示，这将使中小银行有更多信贷资金支持实体经济。
这也与近期业内专家的呼吁一致。业内专家认为，目前需要对存款准备金进行分类管理，将现有的临时性措施稳定下来，形成独立的、确定的制度安排。让不同类别的银行对存款准备金政策有明确预期，减少临时性的政策调整带来的不确定性。
4月17日召开的国务院常务会议已经提出，抓紧建立对中小银行实行较低存款准备金率的政策框架。
“与单次降准相比，政策框架的建立更重要。”中国人民大学重阳金融研究院副院长董希淼表示，此次定向降准有助于进一步推动政策框架的建立。在政策框架形成后，有助于中小银行确定准备金率的不同分档，方便这些银行对资金进行更长期的安排。
对于政策框架方向，今年全国两会期间，中国人民银行行长易纲曾表示，存款准备金率将来会逐步转向三档——大型银行为一档，中型银行为二档，小型银行特别是县域的农村信用社、农商行为最低的第三档。
央行在2018年第四季度货币政策执行报告中指出，目前，存款准备金率大致分为三档：大型商业银行13.5%，中小型商业银行11.5%，县域农村金融机构8%。但在基准档次的基础上,央行对金融机构还实施了普惠金融定向降准政策和新增存款一定比例用于当地贷款的相关考核政策。
具体来看，今年1月25日之后，此次定向降准之前，6家大型商业银行实际执行存准率为12%和13%；中小型商业银行实际执行存准率为10%、11%和11.5%；县域农村金融机构实际执行存准率为7%和8%；政策性银行执行7.5%的存款准备金率。
交通银行金融研究中心高级研究员陈冀认为，此次定向降准等于给了市场一个信号，即优惠准备金率框架已经上路，未来还会持续推进。按照政策方向加大落实力度的银行，未来还可能享有更大力度的流动性支持，尤其是通过降准，增加中小银行中长期可用资金，这些都将持续提升“增信用”实效，提升银行信贷服务中小微民营企业的水平。
定向调节将进一步深化
近期，市场对货币政策的预期由此前的“偏宽松”转为“收紧”。
对此，董希淼认为，此次定向降准也有助于改善当下市场对货币政策收紧的预期。但他同时强调，货币政策是动态调整的，不需要把单次操作看得太重要，而应该根据基本面、流动性等多种情况来综合考量。
中金公司首席经济学家梁红也认为，本次降准缓解了市场的担忧,显示货币政策并没有意向转为去年上半年的“实际偏紧”立场。然而,此次降准范围缩小，也显示货币政策更注重定向调控,但总体货币信贷节奏可能在一季度明显加速后趋于稳定。若总需求仍有下行压力,本次降准显示货币政策支持经济仍有足够的空间。
对于未来的货币政策操作，陈冀认为，未来定向调节政策将进一步深化。从中小银行存准率优惠入手，是因为中小银行与民营、小微企业的“近邻”关系。目前，除了国有大型银行和股份制银行以外的中小银行的小微信贷已在行业中达到50%以上的占比。优先对中小银行采取差别化的监管政策，有利于更加直接地增加小微金融供给，有助于进一步填补金融机构尚未覆盖充分的“空白”。
陈冀表示，然而这并非暗示未来的定向优惠仅针对中小行。2800亿元的资金释放并不是定向调节的“终点”，央行对大型商业银行达到一定标准后实施一定存准率优惠的可能性依然存在。定向调节可能并非仅有定向降准一种手段，创新信贷政策支持再贷款、扩大再贷款等货币政策工具的合格担保品范围、增加民营企业债券融资支持工具以及扩大定向中期借贷便利等，都有可能成为定向调节政策的工具选项。
Information source: Chinese government website
