According to the main business data of trust companies at the end of the third quarter of 2021 released by the China Trust Industry Association recently, as of the end of the third quarter of this year, the balance of capital trusts invested in the securities market has exceeded 3 trillion yuan, and the real estate fund trust has rapidly dropped to less than 2 trillion yuan.
Some experts pointed out that the trust industry should earnestly implement the spirit of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China into all work, grasp the economic development trend under the background of supply-side structural reform, reshape the new advantages and new capabilities of the development of the trust industry, and serve the high-quality development of the real economy.
Trust funds are invested in the securities market at an accelerated pace
Since 2021, the trust industry has continued to increase its business expansion in the securities market.
According to the data, as of the end of the third quarter of 2021, the balance of fund trusts invested in the securities market was 3.06 trillion yuan, an increase of 38.12% year-on-year and 9.22% month-on-month; the proportion of securities market trusts rose to 19.50%, up 6.66 percentage points year-on-year, up 1.98 percentage points from the previous quarter.
Among them, the scale of investment in stocks, bonds and funds was 0.65 trillion yuan, 2.13 trillion yuan and 0.28 trillion yuan respectively, an increase of 6.54%, 57.36% and 10.75% respectively, and the proportion of each was 4.12%, 13.60% and 1.78% respectively. Some analysts pointed out that the growth of securities market trusts is mainly due to the substantial increase in the investment in stock and bond fund trust products, especially the capital trust products invested in bonds.
In recent years, standard trusts have been a key area of business transformation for trust companies. Zhou Ping, a special researcher of the China Trust Industry Association, believes that under the guidance of the policy, it is expected that the scale and proportion of securities market trusts will continue to increase. At the same time, the environment for deepening the reform of the capital market has brought standardized asset investment opportunities to trust companies, and trust companies should give full play to the original attributes of trust assets, develop direct financing business, promote the investment and financing structure of the financial market to match the structure of real economic development, and form a benign interaction and efficient operation of the financial and real economy financial integration pattern.
Since 2021, the debt problem of some large domestic housing enterprises has received extremely high attention from the market, and many trust companies have continued to tighten their efforts in the real estate field. As of the end of the third quarter of 2021, the balance of capital trusts invested in the real estate industry was 1.95 trillion yuan, down 18.13% year-on-year and 6.30% month-on-month; the proportion of real estate trusts fell to 12.42% of the balance of fund trusts, down 1.38 percentage points year-on-year and 0.59 percentage points from the previous quarter.
Zhou Ping said that the regulation and upgrading of the real estate industry will help prevent excessive concentration of financial resources and avoid the resulting waste of resources and potential systemic financial risks. At the same time, the decline in the scale and proportion of real estate trust business will help trust companies to invest more funds in key areas of economic transformation and upgrading, and better play the function of trust services for the high-quality development of the real economy.
In addition, as of the end of the third quarter of 2021, the balance of capital trusts invested in financial institutions was 1.90 trillion yuan, down 11.68% year-on-year and down 0.64% month-on-month; the proportion of financial institution trusts fell to 12.12%, down 0.36 percentage points year-on-year, up 0.15 percentage points from the previous quarter.
The analysis pointed out that under the guidance of the regulatory authorities, the trust industry "two pressures and one drop" has achieved results, and the current scale of capital trusts invested in financial institutions has been reduced by more than half compared with the high point at the end of 2017 (4.11 trillion yuan), and the phenomenon of idling funds has been significantly reduced, which helps to reduce the risk of too long and hidden capital chains while improving financial efficiency.
The quality and efficiency of trust business have been significantly improved
As of the end of the third quarter of 2021, trust companies achieved operating income of 87.264 billion yuan, an increase of 3.69% year-on-year, and the growth rate has slowed down. In the third quarter, the single-quarter operating income of trust companies was 27.034 billion yuan, down 7.13% year-on-year.
However, from the perspective of income structure, trust business income is the most important source of income for trust companies and continues to maintain good stability. As of the end of the third quarter of 2021, trust companies achieved trust business income of 63.229 billion yuan, an increase of 2.68% year-on-year; trust business income accounted for 72.46%.
In the third quarter, trust investment income continued to grow, but the proportion decreased slightly. As of the end of the third quarter of 2021, trust companies achieved investment income of 18.519 billion yuan, an increase of 10.44% year-on-year; investment income accounted for 20.97%, down 1.05 percentage points year-on-year.
Interest income also achieved rapid growth. As of the end of the third quarter, the trust company achieved interest income of 4.444 billion yuan, an increase of 12.89% year-on-year; interest income accounted for 5.97%, up 1.29 percentage points year-on-year.
Overall, the profit scale of trust companies in the third quarter of 2021 continued to grow. As of the end of the third quarter, the cumulative profit of trust companies was 55.676 billion yuan, an increase of 14.58% year-on-year, and the growth rate was slightly down 1.50 percentage points from the second quarter. At the same time, the year-on-year profit growth rate in the third quarter exceeded the revenue growth rate by 10.90 percentage points. Some analysts pointed out that this shows that trust companies continue to reduce operating costs, improve operational quality and efficiency, and gradually show the results of transformation.
Since 2021, some trust companies have received shareholder support to increase their capital, and the capital strength of trust companies has continued to increase. As of the end of the third quarter of 2021, the total equity of the owners of 68 trust companies in the industry was 700.608 billion yuan, an increase of 6.47% year-on-year and 1.17% month-on-month, with a stable growth rate.
From the perspective of the composition of owners' equity, the data shows that the paid-in capital and trust compensation reserves of trust companies have increased significantly compared with 2020, and undistributed profits have increased slightly. At the end of the third quarter, The paid-up capital of the trust industry was 318.721 billion yuan, an increase of 8.68% year-on-year, an increase of 1.05% month-on-month, the proportion of paid-in capital was 45.49%, up 0.93 percentage points year-on-year, a slight decrease of 0.05 percentage points from the previous quarter; the reserve for trust compensation was 32.966 billion yuan, an increase of 11.28% year-on-year, the same as the previous quarter; the proportion of trust compensation reserve was 4.71%, a slight increase of 0.2 percentage points year-on-year, a slight decrease of 0.06 percentage points from the previous quarter; the undistributed profit was 208.227 billion yuan, an increase of 3.14% year-on-year, an increase of 1.48% month-on-month; and the proportion of undistributed profit was 29%. .72%, down 0.96 percentage points year-on-year and up 0.09 percentage points month-on-month.
Zhou Ping believes that under the situation that the economy is facing downward pressure, regulatory policies are tightening and industry risks are intensifying, consolidating capital strength is the premise and cornerstone of the transformation and development of trust companies.
Serve the high-quality development of the real economy
In the third quarter of 2021, "common prosperity" has become a hot topic in the whole society. In this regard, Zhou Ping believes that to promote common prosperity, we must pay close attention to the problems of regional disparities, urban-rural disparities, and income disparities, and continuously narrow the gap in income distribution while continuously improving the income level of urban and rural residents. Charitable trusts are new charitable tools that help solve poverty problems, narrow income disparities and promote common prosperity, and are an important part of China's philanthropy and an important way to achieve the third distribution.
Zhou Ping said that trust companies should always adhere to the service of the real economy as the guide, actively implement the national policy, and constantly optimize and improve the multi-level and wide-coverage business structure that is compatible with the structure of the real economy and financing needs, provide high-quality financial services for the development of the real economy, and achieve benign interaction and coordinated development between the industry and the real economy.
During the third quarter of 2021, the much-watched national carbon market also officially began online trading. Under the guidance of the "double carbon" goal, green finance has ushered in a new round of development opportunities. Zhou Ping believes that on the basis of the practice and innovation of green trust business carried out in the early stage, trust companies can effectively support green and low-carbon development by participating in carbon market transactions, flexibly using asset securitization tools to explore green supply chain financial services, and setting up charitable trusts to support green public welfare.
This article originated from China Banking and Insurance News