China’s banking regulator is cracking down on financialengineering that Chinese banks have used to disguisetrillions of dollars in risky loans as investment products.
中国银行业监管机构正在打击中国各银行用来把数万亿美元高风险贷款伪装成投资产品的“金融工程”。
The clampdown, which will force banks to makeprovisions they previously avoided by disguising loansas investments, is designed to deflate one of thefastest-growing areas of the vast shadow bankingapparatus, where bad debts are increasing.
这一打击行动将迫使银行为他们此前伪装成投资的贷款做出拨备，其目的是抑制庞大的影子银行体系中增长最快的板块之一；目前中国的影子银行业坏账不断增加。
Shadow banking emerged as a force five years ago, ranging from interbank transactions through towealth management products, which promise inflated returns often backed by loans to strugglingcompanies.
从银行间交易到理财产品，影子银行业在5年前成为一股力量，此类产品承诺膨胀的回报，而其担保物往往是发放给困境企业的贷款。
During the past three years, banks in China have used complex accounting techniques to moveloans off the balance sheets and into a category of investments that requires less provisions thanloans.
在过去三年里，中国各银行使用复杂的会计方法，把贷款从资产负债表转移至一个投资类别，后者要求的拨备少于贷款。
It has also reduced the rate of defaults that appear on bank balance sheets because the assets nolonger have the characteristics of loans.
这也降低了银行资产负债表上出现的违约率，因为相关资产不再具有贷款的特点。
These so-called debt receivables have become one of the fastest growing areas of Chinese banks.Debt receivables increased 63 per cent to Rmb14tn ($2.2tn) last year, according to an analysis of103 Chinese banks by Wigram Capital Advisors, equivalent to 16.5 per cent of the formal loanbook.
这些所谓的应收账款已成为中国银行业增长最快的领域之一。Wigram Capital Advisors对中国103家银行进行的分析显示，去年应收账款增长63%，至14万亿元人民币（合2.2万亿美元），相当于正规贷款总额的16.5%。
Analysts say shadow banking poses a big risk to China’s financial system because many of theproducts are designed to skirt regulation and promote risk-laden investment.
分析师们表示，影子银行业对中国金融体系构成很大的风险，因为很多产品的设计宗旨就是跟监管打擦边球，推销充满风险的投资。
Under the new rules, released at the weekend by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, bankscan no longer use wealth management funds to invest directly or indirectly in their own investmentproducts. The lenders will also have to fully provision for the investment products that are based onbank loans.
根据中国银行业监督管理委员会(CBRC)上周公布的新规则，银行不再能够用理财资金直接或间接投资本行信贷资产收益权。银行还必须对基于银行贷款的投资产品全额计提资本。
“If execution is right, I think you will see a major impact on the banks, especially some of thesmaller ones,” said Wei Hou, director at Sanford C Bernstein in Hong Kong. “Some of the smallbanks could need additional capital.”
“如果执行正确，我认为你会看到此举对银行产生重大影响，特别是对一些规模较小的银行，”桑福德伯恩斯坦(Sanford C. Bernstein)在香港的总监侯伟（音）表示。“其中一些小银行可能需要更多资本。”
While smaller banks are most active in shadow banking, the big four state-owned banks alsoreduced provisions last year on their traditional loan books. By making less provision, the biggestbanks were able to maintain largely flat profit growth last year. If they are forced to provision morefor once-hidden losses, profit growth could decline faster this year.
尽管规模较小的银行在影子银行业最为活跃，但四大国有银行去年也减少了传统贷款账簿上的拨备。通过减少拨备，这些大型银行去年得以保持利润基本持平。如果他们被迫针对此前隐藏的亏损加大拨备，今年的利润增长可能更快下滑。
Ratios for provisions on losses continued to fall in the first three months of the year, financialstatements showed.
财务报表显示，今年头三个月期间坏账拨备覆盖率继续下降。
The provisioning ratio at China’s biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, fell to 141per cent of bad debt, below the 150 per cent threshold set out by the regulator, which was recentlylowered from 200 per cent. ICBC’s profit growth was nearly flat for the quarter.
中国最大银行——中国工商银行(ICBC)的坏账拨备覆盖率降至141%，不到监管机构最近才从200%下调的150%的下限。工行的一季度利润同比基本持平。
Mid-sized Industrial Bank reported some of the highest levels of investment receivables in its first-quarter results. The bank held Rmb2tn in investment receivables as of the end of March, 36 per centof its total assets and equivalent to the size of Singapore’s gross domestic product last year.
中等规模的兴业银行(Industrial Bank)在第一季度业绩中报告的应收款项类投资在业内属于极高水平。该行在3月底持有2万亿元人民币的应收款项类投资，相当于其总资产的36%，或者新加坡去年的国内生产总值(GDP)。
