中國合法P2P網貸的新機遇
A few months ago, a small entrepreneur in Nanjing who makes cheap souvenirs sold in Chinese railway stations and local airports borrowed a modest sum from an internet loan shark to pay his staff as his business slowed and cash flow dried up. Although the terms were punishingly high — 1 per cent per day — he thought the slowdown would prove temporary. But the debt crippled him and he was forced to shut down his small enterprise.
幾個月前，南京一名小企業主從一家互聯網高利貸機構借入了一筆不大不小的資金，用來給員工開工資。他的企業是生產在中國火車站或機場出售的廉價紀念品的，他去借那筆錢是因爲業務放緩、現金流枯竭了。儘管對方開出的利率極高——日息1%——但他當時認爲，業務放緩將是暫時的。結果這筆債務拖垮了他，他被迫關掉了自己的小企業。Today there are more than 2,000 peer-to-peer lenders in China. Some of them are outright frauds, enticing lenders to hand money to non-existent borrowers. Others are loan sharks, charging exorbitant interest to customers desperate for short-term funds, as in Nanjing. And others extend credit on reasonable terms to small and medium enterprises, and individual entrepreneurs, who are either too insignificant or too iffy for the banks.
如今，中國已有逾2000家個人對個人(P2P)貸款機構。有些P2P純屬詐騙性質，它們引誘資金出借人把錢“借給”子虛烏有的借款人。有些P2P是高利貸機構，向渴求短期資金的客戶收取高得離譜的利息，比如南京的那個例子。還有些P2P以合理的條款向中小企業和小企業主發放信貸——在銀行眼中，這兩個羣體要麼就是無足輕重，要麼就是太不可靠。Legitimate P2P internet lenders are slowly achieving critical mass in China, with the support of regulatorsfrustrated by the banks’ reluctance to lend to small borrowers. Many small enterprises are in the service sector, so they lack the collateral that banks demand. In addition, the internet lenders have created a virtual infrastructure, including a credit bureau set up by the Alipay unit of Alibaba, that is comparable with or even superior to that of traditional banks. And while they still account for a tiny percentage of Chinese credit flows, these firms are now being taken seriously by banks as gargantuan as HSBC.
在中國，合法互聯網P2P貸款機構的發展正慢慢迎來爆發的那一刻，因爲它們得到了監管機構的支持，監管機構對銀行不願放貸給小借款人感到失望。許多小企業是幹服務業的，所以它們拿不出銀行要求的抵押品。另外，互聯網貸款機構創建了一種虛擬基礎設施，其中包括阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下的支付寶(Alipay)建立的一個徵信機構，該機構可與傳統銀行的同類機構相媲美，甚至比它們還要好。儘管互聯網P2P貸款機構仍然只佔中國信貸流的很小一部分，但這些機構現在已開始受到匯豐(HSBC)等超大型銀行的重視。
More importantly, as P2P lenders gain scale, they are not only changing the way credit works, they also are making mainland China a fairer place and generating jobs that would otherwise not exist. They are also helping the country as it moves away from investment-intensive, export-driven manufacturing to a new, more environmentally friendly template that is based on providing services to the domestic market.
更重要的是，隨着P2P貸款機構規模的擴大，它們不但將改變信貸的運行方式，還將讓中國變得更公平，並創造出一些原本不會存在的就業崗位。在中國從投資密集型、出口驅動型製造業轉向更注重環保的新增長模式（立足點在於向國內市場提供服務）之際，P2P貸款機構對中國也起到了幫助作用。Shanghai-based was founded three years ago by Soul Htite, a former Lending Club executive, and his partner, Kevin Guo, an intellectual property lawyer. Now, the firm is about to close its latest fundraising round with money from the private equity arm of Standard Chartered and a second slug from Tiger Global, among others. It is expected to break even next year.
3年前，Lending Club前高管蘇海德(Soul Htite)與他的合夥人、知識產權律師郭宇航(Kevin Guo)一起在上海創立了點融網()。如今，點融網接近完成其最新一輪融資，投資者包括渣打銀行(Standard Chartered)的私人股本部門以及老虎環球基金（Tiger Global，已是第二次投資點融網）等。點融網預計將在明年實現收支平衡。Dianrong’s mission, says Mr Guo, is to replace the shark lenders. But it is doing far more than that. Many of its customers are part of the new online universe. A big segment of them are Uber drivers who need loans so they can buy or lease cars to provide taxi services.
郭宇航表示，點融網的使命是取代高利貸機構。但點融網正在做的遠不止這一點。它的許多客戶都來自新的“在線世界”，其中很大一部分是優步(Uber)司機，他們申請貸款是爲了買車或租車，以提供出租車服務。Already, Dianrong has lent money to 400 such people, sometimes with the car as collateral or with a guarantee from the leasing company involved. The system is so flexible that a driver can repay the loan without being locked in to a fixed period and the technology so advanced that Dianrong can monitor in real time how much money the driver collects.
點融網已向400名優步司機提供了貸款，有時會以車爲抵押品，或由相關租賃公司提供擔保。點融網的機制相當靈活，司機可在不固定的期限內償還貸款；技術也相當先進，以至於它可實時監控司機的收入。“Soon companies like Dianrong will influence the price of wonton noodle soup,” says a senior HSBC executive based in Shanghai, with a mix of admiration and alarm. Dianrong is also leveraging its relationship with its lenders to offer them wealth management products.
“不久以後，點融網這樣的公司將會影響餛飩麪的價格，”匯豐駐上海的一名高管帶着欽佩和警告的口氣說。點融網還在利用它與資金出借人的關係，向他們提供理財產品。Mr Guo and others like him deny they are in competition with banks. Rather, they say their clients use P2P lenders to establish credit records and then graduate to traditional loans. But bankers, such as Piyush Gupta, the head of Singapore-based DBS, are developing digital banking strategies, both in their home market and in markets where they wish to expand, such as India for DBS.
郭宇航等人否認他們在和銀行競爭。相反，他們表示，他們的客戶利用P2P貸款機構建立起信用記錄，然後就有資格去申請傳統的貸款。但是，新加坡星展銀行(DBS)首席執行官高博德(Piyush Gupta)等銀行家正在他們本土市場和想擴張的市場制定數字銀行戰略。以星展銀行爲例，該行想在印度市場擴張。HSBC has an innovation committee studying new online models, the Shanghai executive says. Standard Chartered already holds a 10 per cent stake in Dianrong and could seek to buy more. But whether these institutions can change their lending and reliance on inflexible credit criteria is an open question.
匯豐駐上海的那名高管表示，匯豐有一個研究新在線模式的創新委員會。渣打銀行已持有點融網10%的股份，而且可能希望增持。但這些機構是否能改變自身的放貸模式、改用靈活的放貸標準，目前尚無定論。Meanwhile, regulators are embracing internet finance companies as well. At the moment P2P lenders are at least partly the product of regulatory arbitrage, but their status will soon change. By year end, they will have to register with the Chinese regulators and be subject to rules, even if they will still have more freedom than the banks.
與此同時，監管機構也在擁抱互聯網金融企業。當前，P2P貸款機構至少在一定程度上是監管套利的產物，但它們的地位將很快發生改變。年底前，它們將需要在中國的監管機構註冊、接受規則制約，儘管它們仍將擁有比銀行更大的自由。For the moment, at least, regulators at China’s central bank and the China Banking Regulatory Commission are thankfully allowing a thousand financial flowers to bloom.
目前而言，最起碼有一點是值得慶幸的：中國央行和中國銀監會內的監管人士允許金融業百花齊放。
