Our reporter Jiang Muyun and Zhang Rongwang reported from Shanghai and Beijing
The development of inclusive finance in mainland China is constantly deepening. At the 14th Lujiazui Forum a few days ago, Li Yunze, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the State Financial Regulatory Administration, said that it is necessary to vigorously develop inclusive finance and help market entities increase confidence and vitality. At the same time, many experts mentioned that inclusive finance needs to solve many deep-seated problems in the next stage.
Industry insiders told the "China Business News" reporter that to promote the high-quality development of inclusive finance, it is necessary to improve the construction of the ecosystem and develop more levels of financial services and financial products in addition to credit. At the same time, the homogenization of products and services also needs to be further improved, which can be achieved through the complementary advantages of different types of financial institutions, dislocation competition, as well as strengthening capacity building and financial technology empowerment.
Introduce differentiated and customized products
Bei Duoguang, dean of the Institute of Inclusive Finance of Chinese Minmin University, said at the Lujiazui Forum that the development of inclusive finance in the mainland can be roughly divided into two stages: On December 31, 2015, the State Council issued the "Plan for Promoting the Development of Inclusive Finance (2016-2020)" By 2020, the first stage has achieved great results, mainly solving the problem of difficult and expensive financing for small and micro enterprises. In the second phase from 2020 to date, financial inclusion needs to be further developed and deeper issues addressed.
In the second phase, Bei Duoguang pointed out that the current inclusive financial system emphasizes more credit services, but in fact, insurance, wealth management, investment and financing should also be included. The Institute for Inclusive Finance of Chinese University found that for the weaker group, the demand for insurance even exceeds the demand for credit, and the financial needs of this group are temporarily unmet. In addition, the way in which inclusive finance supports venture capital is not only credit, but also equity support. Overall, Bedoguang said that financial inclusion should include more levels of financial products, so that it can help people below the middle income from various angles.
For the root cause of this phenomenon, Chen Zhenhui, senior partner and doctor of law at Jingshi Law Firm, told reporters that at present, financial institutions have insufficient risk awareness of inclusive customers such as small and micro enterprises, lack effective risk management methods, and the design and pricing of inclusive financial products are not flexible enough, and there is a homogenization phenomenon, which is difficult to meet the diversified needs of customers, and the effect of customer service and management needs to be improved. Chen Zhenhui suggested that it can be improved in three aspects: First, strengthen the cultivation of risk awareness and management capabilities of financial institutions for inclusive customers such as small and micro enterprises, and improve the level of risk management. Second, optimize the design and pricing of inclusive financial products and introduce more differentiated and customized products. Finally, strengthen the promotion and marketing of inclusive financial products, establish effective customer service and management mechanisms, and improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Regarding the homogeneity of inclusive financial services, Liu Feng, Secretary-General of the China Banking Association, also publicly wrote an article not long ago that after ten years of development, the product and service models in the field of inclusive finance in mainland China have been continuously optimized, but the degree of product homogeneity is high, which cannot better meet the diversified needs of key groups of inclusive finance. To this end, Liu Feng believes that in the future, it is necessary to build and improve the industry development pattern of different types of banks with clear levels, complementary advantages, resource sharing, mutual benefit and dislocation competition, and large and medium-sized banks should strengthen their resources and technological endowments, increase the proportion of medium and long-term credit, and extend services to non-credited households and weak areas. Local small and medium-sized banks give full play to their geographical advantages, continue to cultivate customer groups that are compatible with their operating capabilities and service radius, and build a differentiated service system.
Bei Duoguang also said that the sinking of large banks may squeeze the original living space of rural commercial banks and village banks. He suggested that to form a good ecological structure, large and small banks can form a relationship similar to wholesale and retail. Large banks wholesale their funds to small banks, and small banks lend their funds to inclusive people with small profits. This structure facilitates mutual assistance and complementarity, which can better leverage the advantages of banks of different sizes. From the perspective of international experience, some countries have incorporated social responsibility into the assessment of large banks, that is, if large banks provide loans to small banks, it is also a manifestation of their social responsibility, and it is more conducive to relevant ratings from the perspective of ESG.
Promote personalized and intelligent services
On the other hand, under the wave of digitalization, financial technology has become an important boost to strengthen the construction of inclusive financial service capabilities. In recent years, with the continuous innovation of the application of cutting-edge technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, financial cloud, blockchain, and the Internet of Things in the financial field, digitalization has become one of the trends in the development of inclusive finance.
An industry insider told reporters that in the early stage of the development of inclusive finance, the relevant data of small and micro customer groups themselves is informatized, process-oriented and standardized, such as the existence of incomplete tax and business information, which makes it difficult for financial institutions to grasp their risks. With the help of technologies such as the Internet of Things and big data, the risks of small and micro customers are visible and controllable. At the same time, with the blessing of AI and other technologies, many inclusive financial services have now been fully online, greatly shortening the service process and increasing the convenience of service. In his view, with the further development of financial technology in the future, how inclusive finance can meet more refined financial needs will be one of the development directions.
Jing Xiandong, chairman and CEO of Ant Group, also publicly stated that small and micro credit services are entering a new stage of higher quality development, from mainly solving the problem of "whether there is" before, to pursuing both quality and scale, while solving the demands of "whether there is" and "whether it is good or not". Jing Xiandong believes that the key to solving the problem of smarter and more accurate small and micro credit lies in using technological innovation to achieve insight into thousands of industries and match the personalized and customized needs of small and micro operators at different stages of development in different industries. "The arrival of a new round of artificial intelligence technology revolution represented by large models has allowed Ant Group to see the new possibility of technological inclusion to promote financial inclusion. How to make inclusive finance more personalized, intelligent and green, and how to make inclusive finance evolve from products and services to higher quality financial health, requires joint exploration and more collaboration among all industry participants. Jing Xiandong said.
However, it is worth noting that the process of digitalization also places new demands on institutions. Liu Feng pointed out in the aforementioned article that although digital technology has improved the coverage of inclusive financial services, it has put forward new requirements for customer development, product design, service provision and risk prevention and control, and posed new challenges to institutional risk prevention and control capabilities. Therefore, in the future, institutions should pay attention to matching technical capabilities and risk control capabilities when developing inclusive finance, and continue to improve the input-output ratio of digital technology, so as to further enrich the composite talent team who are proficient in business management and technology application. At the same time, with the wide application of digital technology, consumer protection is a key link in the process of high-quality development of inclusive finance, and while developing artificial intelligence technology, data security and privacy protection and legal compliance issues need urgent attention.
(Editor: Xia Xin, Proofreader: Yan Jingning)