Original title: It is difficult to innovate and make more profits, and the 22 trillion yuan volume trust solves the transformation dilemma
At present, the trust industry is in a critical period of accelerating business transformation and returning to the origin of trust. However, it is difficult for trust companies to reshape their business models, and it is even more difficult to make profits: the new business growth engine has not yet been opened, the sustainability of the business model is worrying, and the rate is deeply "rolled...... Standing at the crossroads of transformation, the difficulty of making new business profits is the biggest problem that plagues many industry insiders.
A number of trust company executives said that business transformation is a "long-distance run", and the industry has yet to form a new sustainable business model, and trust companies must combine their own resource endowments and core competitiveness to determine a differentiated development path.
From high growth rate to high quality
A few days ago, the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Strengthening Supervision and Preventing Risks and Promoting the High-quality Development of the Capital Market", which clearly encouraged bank wealth management and trust funds to actively participate in the capital market when it came to "vigorously promoting medium and long-term funds to enter the market".
"For trusts, the new 'National Nine Articles' are conducive to providing a market ecology suitable for long-term investment. Asset management trust is a major business category in the new three categories of trust, but trust companies are late in the layout of the capital market, and active management capabilities and team building require time to accumulate. Yu Zhi, a researcher at the usufruct trust, said.
From the perspective of the composition of fund trust investment, the data shows that as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, the scale of investment in the securities market (including stocks, funds, and bonds) was 5.75 trillion yuan, accounting for 34.96%, an increase of 2.73 percentage points from the end of the second quarter of that year, and it was the trust fund investment with the largest weight ratio.
Under the guidance of the policy, the trust industry is moving towards the deep water area of the "three classifications" reform.
In June 2023, the new regulations on the "three classifications" of trusts were officially implemented, and the trust business was divided into asset service trusts, asset management trusts and charitable trusts, with a total of 25 sub-categories in three categories. "As the first specialized regulatory document for the trust industry after the promulgation of the new regulations on asset management, it is expected to lead the industry to set off a new round of business innovation in addition to clarifying the boundaries and service connotations of various trust businesses. The relevant person in charge of CITIC Trust said.
"After the introduction of the new regulations, trust companies are trying to dissolve the stock. Everyone also wants to open up new business, but how to fill the relevant talent gap and capital gap?"
After years of development, the scale of trust assets has continued to grow steadily. According to the latest data, as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, the balance of trust assets was 22.64 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.45%. This is the result of the year-on-year growth rate of trust assets turning positive since the second quarter of 2022 and maintaining positive growth for six consecutive quarters after the implementation of the new asset management regulations.
From the perspective of the year-on-year growth rate of trust assets, the growth rate reached a high point in the second quarter of 2013, reaching 70.72%, and then declining quarter by quarter, and began to rebound after hitting a historical low in the second quarter of 2016. The year-on-year growth rate accelerated again in the third quarter of 2016 until the year-on-year growth slowed down in the fourth quarter of 2017. In 2018, the new regulations on asset management put forward the bottom-line thinking of strict risk control, and the quarterly data of entrusted assets in that year showed a continuous downward trend.
In recent years, a number of policy documents have been promulgated, such as the regulation and regulation of real estate trusts, the restriction of bank-trust cooperation, the clarification of the requirements for the setting up of cities and quantities of departments in different places, and the equity management of trust companies, to continue to regulate the steady development of the trust business. The Central Financial Work Conference to be held in 2023 will further seek the direction of financial work, and the trust industry will focus on its main responsibilities and main business, return to the origin of trust, and serve the high-quality development of finance with the power of trust.
Exploring new business is costly
As the long-term profit "engine" of trust companies, the traditional financing business has gradually lost momentum, can the new business support the entire industry to continue to move forward?
"Now when we talk about a business, we need to 'smash' tens of millions of yuan in system construction fees before we start doing it, otherwise we don't need to talk about it later. Upfront costs are high, and the benefits will take years to cash in slowly. When the original industry was growing rapidly, everyone could afford the high cost. But now the company's situation is much worse than before, other businesses are losing money, and they have to do cost input. From the perspective of running a company, this is very difficult to do. The general manager of a trust company said helplessly.
This is just a microcosm of the transformation and development of the industry. A number of industry insiders said: "There are many new businesses that can be expanded, but the upfront cost is too high, mainly because of the large upfront investment in personnel, system construction and operation management. ”
Shu Guang, President of Yunnan Trust, took the market-oriented bankruptcy service trust business as an example, "Some projects involve tens of thousands of creditors, among which there are many subjects, various types of property, and complex legal relationships. The trust company should build a trust structure that meets the needs of all parties, put relevant assets into it, and study and sort out the rights and obligations of all parties. The scale is large, the term is long, and the disposal process is very complex. ”
"Such a complex business requires a complete set of systems to support management, and before doing it, it must be on the system. It is also possible to do it, or the system is built, but later find that it does not make money, and even some trust companies do not know what to do next after winning the bid, after all, these businesses are very new fields in front of the industry. The deputy general manager of a trust company added.
In addition, the cultivation period of asset service trust and other businesses is long, and the competition in the industry is fierce, and the scale effect is not significant. The person in charge of the family office business of a trust company told reporters: "A city commercial bank recommended the business to come and pressed the rate to 1/1,000, and I directly told the bank that the minimum score was 1.5/1,000. I also encountered a business where the rate was given to 9/10,000, and we really couldn't do it at such a low price. ”
"Fierce competition in the industry has led to lower rates, and there are concerns about revenue generation and long-term profitability. Without sufficient scale, these businesses can only bring in meagre revenue. Deng Ting, a special researcher at the China Trust Industry Association, said that the asset management business of standard investment and equity investment, which is in line with regulatory guidance and needs to rely on professional management capabilities, is small and difficult to fill the gap caused by the continuous decline in traditional business income.
According to the data, as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, among the trust assets exceeding 22 trillion yuan, 4.76 trillion yuan of trust funds were invested in bonds, an increase of 1.33 trillion yuan from the end of the previous year.
Gao Xiaojun, chairman of Zijin Trust, believes that on the whole, the traditional financing business continues to decline, the new business model of the industry is still being established, and the scale effect has not yet been formed to support further transformation and development, and the industry, sustainability and stability of the charging model and source still need to be strengthened.
The stock risk has yet to be cleared
Trust companies should not only actively promote business transformation, but also effectively prevent financial risks and eliminate various risk "lightning points". In the context of changes in the macroeconomic environment and accelerated transformation of the industry, some trust companies have recently fallen into a product deferred payment turmoil.
Ping An Trust's "Ping An Trust Funing No. 615 Accumulative Capital Trust Plan" was previously announced to be extended. The trust plan was established on September 29, 2021, with a duration of 30 months, to raise funds of 772 million yuan and invest 70% of the equity of Xiamen Ronglu Real Estate Co., Ltd., thereby indirectly investing in the "Zhenhuafu" project under the name of Xiamen Lianzhengyue Investment Co., Ltd.
An insider of a trust company said: "Most of the real estate risks are exposed to large-scale trust companies, which have developed real estate business rapidly in the past few years, thinking that 'real estate has no risk', and finally it is difficult to escape the law of economic cycles." ”
"Due to the differences in shareholder backgrounds and risk appetites of various trust companies, the risks are not systemic, and are mainly concentrated in trust companies with rapid expansion of real estate business in the early stage or problems with internal control. An insider of a trust company said.
In fact, in recent years, the scale and proportion of trust funds invested in real estate have declined. According to the data, as of the end of the third quarter of 2023, the scale of fund trusts invested in real estate was 1.02 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 20.28%, accounting for 4.51% of the total entrusted assets of 22.64 trillion yuan.
In addition, some political and credit projects have also become the focus of attention inside and outside the industry. Recently, Minmetals Trust announced the postponement of the payment of the "Hengxin Guoxing No. 657-Yingsheng No. 51 Accumulative Capital Trust Plan". According to the materials provided by the investor, all the funds raised under the trust plan were used to issue trust loans to Kunming Chenglu Development and Operation Co., Ltd. in accordance with the Trust Loan Contract, and Kunming Industrial Development and Investment Co., Ltd., Kunming Urban Construction Investment and Development Co., Ltd., and Kunming Xindu Investment Co., Ltd. respectively provided joint and several liability guarantees for the performance of their obligations under the Trust Loan Contract.
Gao Xiaojun said that in the rapid development stage of the industry, some institutions have accumulated certain risks. However, by reducing the scale of financing business, returning to the origin of trust, promoting industry transformation, and strengthening risk disposal, the development of the industry has generally remained stable.
Prescribe the right medicine and find the right entry point
Although the industry is at a low point, it also means the beginning of a new cycle. The interviewed trust company executives generally said that trust companies should combine their own resource endowments, find the right entry point, seek differentiated development, establish a hematopoietic mechanism in development, and resolve stock risks in dynamics.
In November 2023, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration issued the Interim Measures for the Supervision and Classification of Trust Companies, which regulates the hierarchical and classified supervision of trust companies in general. From level 1 to level 6 of the regulatory rating, the intensity of off-site supervision and the frequency of on-site inspections of trust companies will be gradually increased, and the supervision intensity of trust companies with systemic impact will be further increased compared with other companies at the same level. Industry insiders believe that policy-level measures will effectively promote trust companies to take the road of differentiated transformation.
Gao Xiaojun told reporters that the trust industry should further identify the positioning of trust services and trust companies in helping the implementation of national and regional development strategies, serving the high-quality development of the real economy and meeting the people's yearning for a better life. It is necessary to start from its own reality and endowment, find the right entry point, and carry out characteristic management in the business field that it is good at.
"If it is a head trust company with strong capital and a large amount of investment in the transformation business in the early stage, it can roll out its business more comprehensively; if it is a small and beautiful trust company, it can comprehensively consider the development accumulation and personnel setting, and concentrate on one or several types of business. Industry insiders suggested.
Some people in the industry admit that although trust companies have the advantage of flexible cross-market resource allocation, they face obstacles in practice. For example, Deng Ting said: "The development of prepaid funds service trust business needs to promote the government to formulate systems and policies to standardize the management of merchants' prepaid funds, and guide relevant government departments to introduce trust mechanisms when formulating relevant policies." ”
In addition, the current trust is setting off a "capital increase tide", hoping to resolve risks and help transformation through this move. Industry insiders said that some trust companies have operational difficulties due to risk issues, and it is difficult to invest more resources to support the transformation of business. This type of trust company can consolidate the capital "foundation" by increasing capital by shareholders and introducing strategic investors to support the cost of transformation business.
