應對互聯網金融 中國傳統銀行發起反擊大綱

China's brick-and-mortar banks are launching a counter-attack against the assault on their business from Alibaba and other Internet heavyweights, in a bid to staunch the outflow of bank deposits into high-yielding online investment products.

In less than eight months, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's money market fund, Yu'e Bao, has attracted 400 billion yuan ($66.0 billion) in assets under management, more than the customer deposits held by the five smallest listed Chinese banks.

Similar online products from Baidu Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd also contributed to a fall of one trillion yuan in traditional bank deposits in January.

"Yu'e Bao and similar products are posing a very strong competitive challenge to banks," said Zennon Kapron, head of Kapronasia, a finance and technology consultancy based in Hong Kong. "Although the amount of money that (online products) have attracted is still small as a portion of banks' overall deposit base, it's very significant in terms of the speed at which they've grown."

Now traditional lenders, initially caught flat-footed, are striking back.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , Bank of China , Bank of Communications and Ping An Bank have all launched new products in recent weeks that match the attractive features of Yu'e Bao.

Banks are also lobbying regulators to introduce curbs on the growth of on-line funds offered by non-banks.

Ultimately, however, competition for deposits will drive up banks' funding costs and crimp profit margins this year.

As China gradually moves to liberalize deposit interest rates, banks will be forced to compete among themselves to attract customers, which means offering higher yields.

The development of new deposit-like money market products designed to compete with online rivals will further accelerate the trend toward higher funding costs.

"It's going to negatively affect bank margins. Costs will go up," said May Yan, Asia ex-Japan banks analyst at Barclays Capital in Hong Kong.

CASH ON DEMAND

Chinese savers in recent years have flocked to so-called wealth management products (WMPs) that banks market as a higher-yielding alternative to traditional savings deposits, which remain subject to a cap of 3.3 percent for one-year savings.

Alibaba super-charged the switch away from traditional deposits last June when it launched Yu'e Bao in partnership with Tianhong Asset Management Co Ltd, in which it owns a 51 percent stake. The product is currently yielding 6.2 percent.

Beyond the attractive yield, several innovations allowed Yu'e Bao and other online money-market funds to draw funds away from bank deposits and offline WMPs. Unlike most bank WMPs, the Yu'e Bao fund allows investors to redeem shares for cash at any time, rather than locking up their funds for months at a time. Yu'e Bao also requires no minimum threshold to buy in.

The product's seamless integration with Alibaba's widely used third-party payments platform, Alipay, also makes buying into the product simple and convenient.

Now banks are getting in on the act with their own cash-on-demand money market products.

ICBC, the world's largest bank by assets, launched a money-market WMP called "Tiantian Yi, which translates as "Everyday Benefit." So far only account holders based in the eastern province of Zhejiang are allowed to purchase, but the pilot is likely to ramp up quickly.

ICBC hopes to gain an edge over Alibaba by allowing customers to transfer up to 30 million yuan into its product, known as "Everyday Increase."

ICBC has also fought back by limiting its depositors monthly transfers to Alipay to 50,000 yuan per month.

Bocom, China's fifth largest lender, has launched "Quick Benefit Channel," while Ping An Bank has a product called "Ping An Profit."

Bank of Beijing Co Ltd , a mid-sized lender, on Wednesday announced a partnership with smartphone maker Xiaomi Tech on mobile payments and sales of WMPs and insurance products.

Banks are also tweaking WMPs to make them more competitive.

"We're trying to increase the convenience of our WMPs, like letting people buy them during non-working hours. We're also asking the bank regulator to let us lower the 50,000 yuan minimum investment for some products," said a wealth product manager at a mid-sized bank in Shanghai.

CALLS FOR REGULATION

UBS estimates that if 10 percent of total bank deposits flow into online products, it could reduce banks' net interest margin by 0.1 percentage points, while lost fee income would amount to 4 percent of estimated 2014 net profit.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission said last week that it is working with other agencies to develop rules for Internet finance. Industry observers say that banks are lobbying for curbs on the proliferation of online products from third-party payment services.

"Regulators are trying to walk a fine line. They don't want to kill innovation that benefits consumers, but they also don't want deposit-taking activity that's completely unregulated," said Yan.

Analysts say that even if banks are able to draw funds into their own money-market products the trend of rising funding costs will continue, as the banks' products would have to match the yields offered by online rivals.

Indeed, funds invested in Yu'e Bao and similar products eventually end up with banks anyway. Tianhong uses Yu'e Bao funds to invest mainly in interbank deposits and repurchase agreements. So whether banks borrow from Tianhong or raise funds from their own products, the cost is still higher than on ordinary deposits.

"The money stays in the system, but (online products) turn cheap deposits into expensive ones," said May Yan, Asia ex-Japan banks analyst at Barclays Capital in Hong Kong. ($1 = 6.0641 Chinese yuan)據路透社報道，爲了應對來自阿里巴巴及其他互聯網巨頭對中國傳統銀行業務的影響，中國傳統銀行正發起反擊，旨在阻止銀行存款外流到高收益率的互聯網投資產品。

還不到八個月，阿里巴巴集團旗下的貨幣市場基金產品--餘額寶總共吸收了4000億元（約660億美元），超過了5家中國最小規模上市銀行的客戶存款總和。

百度公司及騰訊控股有限公司旗下類似的互聯網產品也是一月份中國傳統銀行存款流失一萬億元的原因。

香港一家金融技術諮詢公司Kapronasia的負責人Zennon Kapron表示：“餘額寶及其他類似的互聯網產品正對中國傳統銀行發起一股強有力的挑戰，儘管這類互聯網產品吸收的資金總量與銀行存款總額相比仍然不大，但是其增長速度是相當驚人的。”

如今，措手不及的傳統銀行正開始反擊。

最近幾周，中國工商銀行，中國銀行，交通銀行及平安銀行全都推出了新的產品，對抗餘額寶。

銀行還在遊說監管部門採取措施，控制互聯網產品的發展。

然而，最終各類產品對存款的競爭將會提高銀行今年的融資成本，降低其利潤空間。

隨着存款利率不斷地自由化，中國傳統銀行將會被迫進行內部競爭，提供更高回報率的產品，吸引客戶。

旨在與互聯網產品對抗的新型類存款資金市場產品將會進一步加速融資成本的增大。

前日本銀行亞洲分析師，香港巴克萊資本的May Yan表示：“這樣一來，銀行利潤率將會受到不利影響，成本將上漲。”

現錢交易

近年來，中國儲戶熱捧銀行所謂高回報率的理財產品（WMPs），並從傳統年利率上線爲3.3%的儲戶存款中解放出來。

去年六月，阿里巴巴與天弘資產管理有限公司攜手發行餘額寶，就完全主導着銀行傳統存款的外流。阿里巴巴持有天弘資產管理有限公司51%的股份，該產品目前的年化收益率爲6.2%。

餘額寶及其他互聯網貨幣市場基金之所以能夠從傳統的銀行存款及線下理財產品中吸收資金，除了誘人的高回報外，還得益於其幾項創新改革。與大多數銀行理財產品不同的是，餘額寶允許投資者隨時贖回資金，而不是一次就鎖定他們的資金好幾個月。而且餘額寶沒有設置最低投資門檻。

餘額寶與支付寶（阿里巴巴旗下被廣泛使用的第三方支付平臺）的完美結合，也使得購入該產品更爲簡單方便。

現在，各銀行都行動起來，推出各自現錢交易的資金市場產品。

世界上資產總量最大的銀行--中國工商銀行，發行了資金市場理財產品--“天天益”。目前只有浙江地區的儲戶才能購買天天益，但是工商銀行將有可能很快地擴大其試點範圍。

工商銀行希望贏得與阿里巴巴競爭的優勢，借“天天益”吸收存款達3000萬元。

另外，工商銀行還規定，儲戶每月向支付寶轉賬的金額不得超過5萬元。

中國的第五大商業銀行--交通銀行，推出了“快溢通”，平安銀行則推出了“平安盈”。

週三，中等規模的北京銀行宣佈與智能手機生產商小米科技建立合作伙伴關係，合作範圍涉及移動支付及銷售理財產品和保險產品。

銀行也正對各自理財產品作調整，使其更具競爭力。

上海一家中等規模銀行的理財產品經理表示：“我們正試圖增加我們理財產品的便利性，比如說：在非工作時段讓客戶購買我們的產品。我們也在要求監管部門放寬某些產品5萬元的投資門檻。”

要求監管

瑞士聯合銀行預計，如果銀行總存款的10%流入互聯網產品，那麼銀行的淨利差可能減少0.1個百分點，同時手續費收入將會損失高達2014年預計淨利潤的4%。

上週，中國證監會表示他們正與其他部門就互聯網融資制定相關規則。業內觀察家們表示各銀行正在遊說監管部門，從第三方支付服務方面阻止互聯網產品的擴張。

Yan 表示：“監管部門正試圖找出個折中的辦法。他們不想扼殺一切有利於消費者的改革創新，但是他們也不想融資活動處於完全不被監管的狀態。”

分析師表示即使銀行有能力吸引資金投資他們的貨幣市場產品，融資的成本增加的趨勢還會繼續，因爲銀行產品將不得不與由互聯網競爭對手提供的高回報產品進行抵抗。

的確，投資在餘額寶及其他類似產品的資金最終會流向銀行。天弘主要把餘額寶資金投入到同業存款及回購上。因此，不管銀行是向天弘借貸，還是從自己的產品中融資，成本仍舊比普通存款高。

前日本銀行亞洲分析師，巴克萊銀行的May Yan表示：“雖然資金還在銀行系統裏，但是互聯網產品將廉價存款的成本提高。”（1美元=6.0641元）