中國小貸公司新增貸款同比減半

China’s small-loan providers have virtually halved lending as the slowing economy turns both lenders and borrowers more wary of risk.

隨着中國經濟放緩，貸款機構和借款者對風險警惕性增加，中國小額貸款公司發放的貸款幾乎減少一半。

New loans from China’s 8,591 small-loan providers came to just Rmb89bn ($14.5bn) in the first nine months of 2014, virtually half the Rmb161bn level in the same period last year, according to central bank data.

據央行最新數據，今年頭9個月，中國共計8591家小額貸款公司新增貸款僅爲890億元人民幣 (合145億美元)，幾乎是去年同期1610億元人民幣的一半。

Policy makers have encouraged the rise of small loan providers – which typically range from Rmb50,000 to Rmb5m – since a wave of defaults on informal debt in the light-manufacturing hub of Wenzhou in 2011 sparked bankruptcies and several suicides.

2011年，輕工業中心溫州出現的一波非正規貸款違約浪潮，導致多家公司破產，數人自殺，此後政策制定者一直鼓勵小額貸款公司的發展。這些貸款公司的規模貸款規模一般介於5萬元人民幣至500萬元人民幣之間。

Small and medium-sized enterprises account for about 60 per cent of China’s gross domestic product and 75 per cent of new jobs but have long struggled to access credit through traditional banks, which favour large state-owned companies and require land or fixed assets as collateral.

中國的中小企業佔國內生產總值(GDP)的60%左右，創造了75%的新增就業，但長期以來一直很難通過傳統銀行獲得貸款，這些銀行青睞大型國有企業，而且需要土地或固定資產作爲抵押。

Small-loan companies contribute only a tiny portion of overall lending in China, with loans outstanding totalling Rmb908bn by the end of September, compared with Rmb95tn in commercial bank loans.

小額貸款公司僅佔中國貸款總額的一小部分，截至9月底，小額貸款公司的未償還貸款總額爲9080億元人民幣，而商業銀行貸款餘額達到95萬億元人民幣。

But such businesses and their clients are among the most sensitive to changing economic conditions. Growth has slowed this year as small companies suffer from weaker demand for their products and lenders seek to protect themselves from credit risk.

但這些小額貸款公司及其客戶對經濟形勢的變化最爲敏感。今年中國經濟增速放緩，小企業產品需求下滑，而貸款公司希望保護自己避免信貸風險。

“Small-loan companies don’t have a lot of confidence in their clients right now,” said Xu Xiaoping, dean of the Center for Small Enterprise Financing Studies at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.

上海財經大學小企業融資研究中心(Center for Small Enterprise Financing Studies)主任徐曉萍表示：“小額貸款公司現在對客戶沒有很大信心。”

Bad loans are also rising. The non-performing loan ratio for some small-loan companies in eastern China is more than 5 per cent, according to an unnamed central bank official quoted this week by Economic Information, a newspaper run by the official Xinhua news agency. That would be far above the official bad-loan rate of 1.08 per cent for commercial banks.

小額貸款公司的壞賬也在增加。中國的《經濟參考報》援引一位不願具名的央行官員稱，中國東部的一些小額貸款公司的壞賬率超過5%。遠超過商業銀行1.08%的官方壞賬率。

Small-loan companies are not classified as banks because they cannot take deposits. Instead they fund themselves through equity, bonds and interbank borrowing.

小額貸款公司沒有被列爲銀行，因爲它們不吸收存款。它們通過股票、債券和銀行間借貸爲自己融資。

This has exposed them to some of the riskier sectors, such as the slowing property market, in turn denting growth. “Their funding costs are high so they're bound to look for high-return projects,” said Prof Xu.

這讓它們有可能投資於一些風險較高的行業，例如日益放緩的房地產市場，這些行業的情況反過來會影響其增長。徐曉萍表示：“它們的融資成本很高，因此它們肯定會尋找高收益項目。”

Reduced lending by small-loan providers could fuel the broader trend of slower investment by privately owned businesses, which are smaller on average than state-owned rivals but account for two-thirds of overall fixed-asset investment.

小額貸款機構貸款減少可能會令更爲大範圍的私營企業投資放緩雪上加霜，私營企業的平均規模不及國有競爭對手，但佔固定資產投資總額的三分之二。

Market research group Euromonitor International estimates that small loans outstanding will grow at an annual 23 per cent between 2014 and 2018, much slower than the average annual rate of 81 per cent in 2009 to 2013.

市場研究集團歐睿信息諮詢公司(Euromonitor International)估計，2014年至2018年，未償還小額貸款將以每年23%的速度增加，遠遠低於2009年至2013年每年平均81%的增速。