中國政府將打擊影子貸款機構
Chinese authorities are seeking to crack down on a surge of unregulated lending that is pushing up property prices in the country’s biggest cities, before it wreaks damage on the wider economy.
大量不受監管的貸款推升了中國一線城市房價，中國有關部門正設法打擊此類放貸，以防其損害整體經濟。
Zhou Xiaochuan, head of the People’s Bank of China, denounced loans for downpayments on homes as illegal, in comments at the weekend. Pan Gongsheng, a central bank vice-president, said regulators would act against the peer-to-peer companies that grant such loans.
中國央行(BoC)行長周小川在上週末的講話中表示首付貸不合規。央行副行長潘功勝表示，監管部門將對發放這類貸款的“個人對個人”(P2P)公司採取行動。
But many experts are worried that property speculation in China’s four biggest cities has reached new highs, largely due to such shadow financing. Unregulated funds have ploughed billions of renminbi into the property market in recent months.
但許多專家擔心中國四大一線城市的房地產泡沫已經達到了新高，這主要是由於此類影子融資。近幾個月，鉅額不受監管的資金流入房地產市場。
“It reminds me of the US subprime crisis,” said Xia Le, chief economist for Asia at BBVA. “In the past, people buying houses paid using their own money but now they’re using speculative shadow finance.”
西班牙對外銀行(BBVA)亞洲首席經濟學家夏樂表示：“這讓我想起了美國的次貸危機。過去購房人用自己的錢買房，但現在他們利用投機性的影子金融。”
Home sales in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, China’s “first-tier” cities, grew 14 per cent last year compared with about 7 per cent nationwide. In Shenzhen, the average price per square metre in February nearly doubled compared with a year earlier.
中國一線城市——北京、上海、廣州、深圳——的房屋銷售去年同比增長14%，全國爲7%左右。2月份深圳房屋每平方米均價同比幾乎翻了一番。
The divergence between the first-tier market and the rest of China was partially caused by shadow funds pouring into the market, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note.
美銀美林(Bank of America Merrill Lynch)在一份報告中表示，一線城市與中國其他地區的樓市差異，在一定程度上是影子貸款涌入一線城市造成的。
The property boom in the four big cities also comes despite a series of targeted government measures. In the wake of the collapse of the US housing market in 2008, China launched restrictions on mortgages to rein in the country’s then red hot property market, which was part-fuelled by speculation on borrowed money. By forcing buyers to put up a 30 per cent downpayment for their first homes and as much as 50 per cent for their second or third, the government gradually brought the overheating market to heel.
四大城市房地產的繁榮，還是在儘管政府採取了一系列針對性措施的背景下出現的。2008年美國住房市場崩潰後，中國出臺抵押貸款限制條例，以控制當時火熱的國內房地產市場，而這種火熱在一定程度上是由投機性貸款炒起來的。通過迫使購房者爲首套房屋支付30%的首付，爲二套或三套房屋支付高達50%的首付，中國政府逐漸控制住了過熱的房地產市場。
But the peer-to-peer companies — loosely regulated financiers that match cash from investors with borrowers online — have helped buyers circumvent such controls. About 15 large peer-to-peer money lenders with products concentrated in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai have granted unsecured loans that allow customers to pay deposits, freeing them up to apply for mortgages at banks, and so tying the formal banking system into the speculative wave.
但P2P公司幫助買房者規避了這種管制，這些監管鬆散的金融機構在互聯網上爲投資者和貸款人提供貸款中介服務。約有15家大型P2P貸款機構在深圳、北京和上海集中推出首付貸業務，向客戶提供無抵押貸款，讓他們能交首付，從而有資格向銀行申請抵押貸款，由此將正規銀行系統捲入投機浪潮。
“It’s attracting a lot of lower-quality borrowers and of course people who want to speculate on real estate,” said Roger Ying, chief executive of Beijing-based P2P platform , which does not offer downpayment loans.
北京P2P平臺盼貸()首席執行官霍中皓(Roger Ying)表示：“這吸引了不少資質較差的貸款者，當然還有想投機炒房的人。”該公司沒有提供首付貸服務。
Estimates from , a P2P consulting company, put the total amount of P2P cash that has seeped into the system at Rmb5bn ($770m), a fraction of the total property market.
根據P2P諮詢公司網貸之家()估計，流入系統的P2P資金總額爲50億元人民幣（合7.7億美元），僅佔整體房地產市場的一小部分。
However, , a Beijing-based real estate company and P2P lender shut down last week, has lent up to Rmb3bn alone, suggesting the real figure could be much higher.
然而，僅上週關閉部分門店的北京房地產公司、P2P貸款機構鏈家()，就已經借出多達30億元人民幣，這似乎表明實際數字可能要高得多。
The Rmb5bn figure also omits mortgages that borrowers have received from banks after using P2P funds for downpayments. State media estimate that up to a third of Shenzhen’s real estate market, with mortgages worth more than Rmb1tn in December, is speculative in nature.
所謂50億元人民幣的P2P貸款規模，還忽略了借款人在利用P2P資金支付首付後從銀行獲得的抵押貸款。官方媒體估計，在截至去年12月抵押貸款超過1萬億人民幣的深圳房地產市場，有多達三分之一是投機性的。
China’s biggest cities only comprise 5-9 per cent of the country’s overall property market, but some analysts underline concern at the impact of the boom on the economy as a whole. Spark Wang at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services in Shanghai said the P2P loans were riskier than some of the products issued during the US subprime crisis. P2P loans typically mature in 90 days and carry interest rates of up to 12 per cent.
中國一線城市只構成了全國房地產市場的5%至9%，但一些分析師擔憂房價暴漲對整體經濟造成的影響。上海威科金融服務(Wolters Kluwer Financial Services)的Spark Wang表示，P2P貸款的風險比美國次貸危機期間推出的一些產品還要大。P2P貸款通常90天到期，利率高達12%。
