China to Unleash $108 Billion in Reserve Cut for Some Banks
China’s central bank will cut the amount of cash some lenders must hold as reserves, unlocking about 700 billion yuan ($108 billion) of liquidity, as it seeks to control leverage and support smaller companies.
The required reserve ratio for some banks will drop by 0.5 percentage point, effective July 5, the People’s Bank of China said on its website Sunday. The aim is to support small and micro enterprises, and to further promote the debt-to-equity swap program, according to the central bank. The cut will apply to major state-run commercial banks, joint-stock commercial lenders, postal banks, city commercial lenders, rural banks and foreign banks.
Such a reduction had been widely expected, especially after China’s cabinet said on Wednesday that it would use monetary policy tools, including cutting reserve ratios for some banks, to boost credit supply to smaller companies.
The PBOC designed the cut to do two different things, according to the statement. The 500 billion yuan unlocked for the nation’s five biggest state-run banks and 12 joint-stock commercial lenders will be channeled to debt-to-equity swaps, which can reduce companies’ debt burdens and help cleaning up banks’ balance sheets. The 200 billion yuan freed for smaller lenders such as the postal bank and city commercial lenders will be used to support funding for smaller businesses.
Targeted, precise change
The move will "help push forward the steady progress of structural deleveraging, and strengthen support to the weak links of small-and-micro businesses. It is a targeted and precise fine-tuning," the central bank said in a separate statement. "The PBOC will keep implementing prudent and neutral monetary policy, and create a favorable monetary and financial environment for high-quality development and supply-side reform."
"The RRR cut this time doesn’t change the PBOC’s prudent policy stance. The decision fits the current economic and liquidity situations," said Wen Bin, a researcher at China Minsheng Banking Corp. in Beijing. "It is also an innovative move and addresses structural problems, as the central bank ordered the lenders to use the money unleashed to push forward debt-to-equity swaps and support small-and-micro-sized businesses. This can help relieve financial burdens for some companies while reducing leverage."
The funds unlocked from the reserve ratio cut shouldn’t be used to support so-called zombie companies, the PBOC said.
Risk containment
The central bank’s support of debt-to-equity "may reflect its intent to contain credit risk and prevent a significant impact on domestic business confidence," Morgan Stanley economists led by China Chief Economist Robin Xing wrote in a note. The next steps could include open market cash injections and further RRR cuts, Xing wrote.
The central bank is adjusting monetary policy at a time when China’s economy is showing signs of slowing amid an ongoing campaign to clean up the financial sector and worsening trade tensions with the U.S. The change will also help ease a funding squeeze for lenders, which have to repay money borrowed from the central bank’s medium-term lending facility, and put aside cash for both the July tax season and upcoming quarterly regulatory checks.
One-month interbank borrowing costs, or Shibor, climbed to the highest level since early April last week, as liquidity tightens before the regulatory and tax season.
Beats expectations
“The size of the liquidity being unleashed has beat expectations and it’s larger than the previous two cuts this year”, said Ming Ming, head of fixed-income research at Citic Securities Co. in Beijing. “It’s almost a universal cut as it covers almost all lenders.”
The move will ease liquidity shortages currently seen in the implementation of debt-to-equity programs, and it shows that policy makers still don’t want to send a signal of across-the-board easing, Ming said. "The central bank may have predicted rising debt risks in the near future, so it decided to set up such an arrangement," he said.
Bloomberg News
— With assistance by Yinan Zhao, Xiaoqing Pi, Tian Chen, Miao Han, and Amanda Wang
央行：定向降低存款准备金率0.5个百分点
1、此次定向降准支持市场化法治化“债转股”和小微企业融资的具体内容是什么？
答：此次定向降准主要有两方面内容：一是自2018年7月5日起，下调工行、农行、中行、建行、交行五家国有大型商业银行和中信银行、光大银行等十二家股份制商业银行人民币存款准备金率0.5个百分点，可释放资金约5000亿元，用于支持市场化法治化“债转股”项目，同时撬动相同规模的社会资金参与。相关银行要建立台账，逐笔详细记录市场化法治化“债转股”实施情况，按季报送人民银行等相关部门。二是同时下调邮政储蓄银行、城市商业银行、非县域农村商业银行、外资银行人民币存款准备金率0.5个百分点，可释放资金约2000亿元，主要用于支持相关银行开拓小微企业市场，发放小微企业贷款，进一步缓解小微企业融资难融资贵问题。金融机构使用降准资金支持“债转股”和小微企业融资的情况将纳入人民银行宏观审慎评估。
2、此次定向降准支持市场化法治化“债转股”和小微企业融资的主要考虑是什么？
答：此次定向降准是落实6月20日国务院常务会议的有关部署。今年以来，市场化法治化“债转股”签约金额和资金到位进展比较缓慢，考虑到国有大型商业银行和股份制商业银行是市场化法治化“债转股”的主力军，可通过定向降准释放一定数量成本适当的长期资金，形成正向激励，提高其实施“债转股”的能力，加快已签约“债转股”项目落地。同时，当前我国小微企业融资难融资贵问题仍较为突出。邮政储蓄银行和城市商业银行、非县域农商行在支持小微企业方面发挥着重要作用，对其实施定向降准，有利于增强小微信贷供给能力，增加银行小微企业贷款投放，降低小微企业融资成本，改善对小微企业的金融服务。总的来看，此次定向降准有利于稳步推进结构性去杠杆，有利于加大对小微企业等薄弱环节的支持力度，属于定向调控和精准调控。人民银行将继续实施好稳健中性的货币政策，为高质量发展和供给侧结构性改革营造适宜的货币金融环境。
3、定向降准资金支持的“债转股”项目应满足哪些条件？
答：人民银行鼓励十七家大中型商业银行使用定向降准资金，支持充分体现市场化和法治化原则的“债转股”项目，以下几条是需要注意的：一是实施主体在“债转股”项目中应当实现真正的股权性质投入，而不是仍然以获取固定收益为目的的“债转债”，也就是说，不支持“名股实债”的项目；二是鼓励相关银行和实施主体按照不低于1：1的比例撬动社会资金参与“债转股”项目；三是“债转股”有关股份以及相关债务减记要严格遵循市场化定价，按照法律法规，由项目相关参与方协商确定；四是支持各类所有制企业开展市场化法治化“债转股”，相关实施主体应真正参与“债转股”后企业的公司治理，促进其公司治理水平的提高，同时推进混合所有制改革；五是实施“债转股”项目应当有利于改善企业资产负债结构，恢复企业发展动能，不支持“僵尸企业”债转股。