VZCZCXRO7051
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHGH #0550/01 3510537
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 160537Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL SHANGHAI
TO RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
INFO RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 1779
RUEHGP/AMEMBASSY SINGAPORE 0193
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 8042
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 0233
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 2360
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0071
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 1612
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 1604
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 1405

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 SHANGHAI 000550 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM 
TREASURY FOR AMBASSADOR HOLMER, WRIGHT AND TSMITH; 
TREASURY FOR OASIA/INA - DOHNER, HAARSAGER/WINSHIP; 
TREASURY FOR CUSHMAN 
TREAUSRY FOR IMFP SOBEL. MOGHTADER 
NSC FOR WILDER AND LOI 
STATE PASS CEA FOR BLOCK 
STATE PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD/WINTER/MCCARTIN/KATZ/MAIN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CH EFIN ECON PGOV
SUBJECT: (SBU) EXPORT SLOWDOWN SPURRING BANK REFORMS IN ZHEJIANG 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary.  Zhejiang provincial and local officials are 
pushing ahead with financial reforms to create small lending 
companies as part of their answer to the global financial 
crisis.  Our contacts described the need to increase financing 
for SMEs as critical because bank lending to SMEs has dried up. 
In terms of corporate governance, the pilot projects are well 
designed.  However, the new policies on small lending companies 
are unlikely to have a great impact on increasing funding to 
SMEs in the short term.  Neither will the experiments go far in 
bringing Zhejiang's informal banking activity into the open. 
End summary. 
 
============================ 
Zhejiang Pushing Ahead with SME Financing Reforms 
============================ 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Zhejiang provincial and local officials are pushing 
ahead with financial reforms to create small lending companies 
as part of their answer to the global financial crisis.  With 
slowing export growth and broader macroeconomic troubles 
weighing on the province's many small and medium-size 
enterprises (SMEs), Zhejiang officials and entrepreneurs have 
jumped at the chance offered by Central Government regulators to 
bring some of the informal banking system out into the open. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Zhejiang has been in the forefront of responding to 
the call for small lending company pilot projects issued on May 
4, 2008 by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) and 
the People's Bank of China (PBOC).  According to an article 
posted in July 2008 on the State Council's website Zhongguo 
Wang, Zhejiang is taking the lead in the pilot project.  Hongda 
Small Lending Company, located in Ningbo, was the first project, 
opening for business on September 28.  Nonetheless, several 
other provinces have also recently announced plans to set up 
small lending companies, including Beijing, Chongqing, Fujian, 
Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanghai and Fujian. 
 
============================ 
The View from Zhejiang 
============================ 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Zhou Yeliang, PBOC Hangzhou Subbranch president, told 
Econoff during a November 19-20 visit to Hangzhou and Wenzhou 
that as of November 19 the province had received 40 applications 
to establish small lending companies to date, of which 25 had 
been approved and 10 were already open for business.  Zhou said 
that the province intends to reach its full complement of 110 
small lending companies "soon."  According to the Zhongguo Wang 
article, Central Government authorities have approved Zhejiang's 
plan to establish one small lending company in each county, with 
an additional four in the cities of Jialing, Hangzhou, Taizhou, 
and Wenzhou and one additional small lending company in Yiwu. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Small lending companies are not considered financial 
institutions for regulatory purposes, agreed our Zhejiang 
contacts.  Therefore, as spelled out in the May 4 CBRC/PBOC 
guidelines, they are not monitored by the local CBRC branch, but 
rather the local Bureau of Industry and Commerce, while 
approvals for applications are at the discretion of the local 
financial affairs office or equivalent.  This process was 
followed in the application of Chen Kaiyuan, founder and 
chairman of Cangnan Lianxin Small Lending Company in Wenzhou, 
which he claims is the first operating small lending company in 
Zhejiang.  Chen told Econoff on November 20 that Cangnan County 
officials approved his application on August 20, city-level at 
the end of August, and provincial-level officials on September 
¶24.  Following that, the firm's capital was injected on October 
7, the company was officially registered with the provincial 
Bureau of Industry and Commerce on October 13, and the firm 
began conducting business the same day. 
 
============================ 
 
SHANGHAI 00000550  002 OF 004 
 
 
Officials Hoping Reforms Will Help SME Liquidity . . . 
============================ 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Our contacts described the need to increase financing 
for SMEs as critical because bank lending to SMEs has dried up. 
Hangzhou PBOC's Zhou said that Zhejiang "has SMEs as a target 
for monetary policy."  Provincial officials want to increase the 
new investment going to SMEs, and "small lending companies will 
be a big help," he said.   Zhou, however, vigorously denied that 
the Central Bank had issued any quotas for banks' lending to 
SMEs -- the dropoff in lending growth to SMEs earlier this year 
was an artifact of high lending in the year-earlier period, he 
stated. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Two main reasons were cited by most interlocutors for 
SME financing problems:  First, banks are being much more 
cautious in lending to riskier small and newly established firms 
in the current economic conditions.  Pan Guangen, director of 
the banking affairs department of the Zhejiang Provincial 
Government Financial Affairs Office, said that banks don't want 
to extend credit to SMEs because they are afraid their 
nonperforming loan ratio will rise.  Second, the main commercial 
banks are too focused on large customers.  The large banks' 
fears are worsened by their inability to get to know the details 
of smaller companies' businesses, said Pan.  Hangzhou PBOC's 
Zhou made a similar point, although perhaps one more influenced 
by a planned-economy approach to banking, saying that big banks 
are intended to finance large companies and infrastructure, 
agricultural credit cooperatives should finance farmers, and the 
small lending companies could finance SMEs and startups. 
 
============================ 
. . . But Acknowledge There Is Little Impact So Far 
============================ 
 
¶8.  (SBU) In their initial stage, the new policies on small 
lending companies are unlikely to have a great impact on 
increasing funding to SMEs, our contacts agree.  The main 
problem is the scale of the pilot project.  Even at an eventual 
strength of 110 small lending companies, registered capital for 
each ranges only from RMB50 million to RMB200 million, for a 
total province-wide available capital pool of RMB5.5 billion to 
RMB22 billion (approximately US$803 million to US$3.2 billion). 
Lending in Zhejiang in 2007 was RMB2.85 trillion (approximately 
US$416 billion), according to the PBOC's Zhou, so the new 
channel will amount to much less than one percent of total 
lending. 
 
============================ 
Small Step in Legitimizing Informal Finance 
============================ 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The experiments will also not go far in bringing 
Zhejiang's informal banking activity into the open, said Shi 
Jinchuan, Executive Dean of the Zhejiang University's College of 
Economics.  Shi told Econoff that a conservative estimate of 
total private finance in Zhejiang Province would be RMB800 
billion to RMB1 trillion (approximately US$117 billion to US$146 
billion).  Shi also said that the threshold of RMB50 million for 
small lending companies' registered capital was too high. 
Rather than set standards that serve to keep players out of the 
finance markets, said Shi, the PBOC should focus on monitoring 
and surveillance. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Zhou Dewen, President of the Wenzhou SME Development 
and Promotion Association, made the more aggressive estimate of 
RMB600 billion (approximately US$88 billion) for private 
financing in Wenzhou City.  This dwarfs the RMB1 billion 
(approximately US$146 million) that could be channeled through 
Wenzhou's allotted five small lending companies.  (Note:  The 
PBOC Hangzhou's Zhou was highly critical of Zhou Dewen's private 
finance estimates, saying that Zhou Dewen surveyed only small 
 
SHANGHAI 00000550  003 OF 004 
 
 
firms that rely most heavily on private finance and then 
extrapolated to all enterprises.  Zhou in a recent press 
interviews has defended his estimate, qualifying it to say that 
RMB300 billion is invested locally and another 300 billion is 
invested elsewhere in China and abroad.  End note.) 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Nonetheless, the first companies have been welcomed 
by SME's in Zhejiang.  Lianxin Small Lending Company's Chen told 
Econoff that most of his RMB100 million in registered capital 
was lent out within the first week of business.  More than 70 
percent of his loans are for RMB500,000 (as mandated by the 
regulations), said Chen, and are for short-term bridge loans 
tied to receivables or to the period needed to roll over bank 
loans.  Lianxin as of November 20 had already turned over its 
entire capital at least once, said Chen. 
 
============================ 
Trying to Align Incentives with Good Corporate Governance 
============================ 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Borrowers are motivated to access finance through the 
new channel because interest rates are slightly reduced by 
regulatory caps.  Generally, short-term rates from informal 
lenders can reach 3 percent a month, although such high rates 
generally apply to periods of just a few days, said Bao Ji, 
Office Director of the Wenzhou City Clothing Chamber of 
Commerce.  Lianxin Small Lending Company, on the other hand, 
lends at 1.2 percent a month for rural borrowers that are part 
of the Central Government's rural policies, at 1.2 percent for 
"normal" borrowers with collateral, and at 1.6 percent-1.8 
percent for noncollateralized loans guaranteed by third parties. 
 Chen said that 70 percent of Lianxin's loans fall into the 
latter category.  The PBOC Hangzhou's Zhou and the Zhejiang 
Financial Affairs Office's Pan said that rates are currently 
capped at an annual rate of 20 percent; however, Zhou and others 
said that in principle the upper limit would be four times the 
PBOC's base lending rate.  (Note: The Supreme People's Court has 
established interest rates above this level as illegal usury. 
End note.) 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Small lending company shareholders are motivated to 
properly manage their finances by the promise that they could 
eventually gain a rural banking license, said Lianxin's Chen. 
Central and local officials are dangling the prospect that small 
lending companies with a record of adding to the social good and 
operating within the rules could at some future point apply to 
become a rural bank.  Chen, who is also the founder and chairman 
of a mid-size gas valve producer, reflected this policy by 
saying that one goal in establishing Lianxin was to support SMEs 
that are struggling just like his own company did in the 1990s 
to get a start.  However, there are also signs that the current 
incentive structure may not preclude all efforts by shareholders 
to use small lending company finances to self deal.  Chen, for 
instance, admitted that he sees Lianxin as a potential channel 
to help fund his own business.  (Note:  Chen did not mention if 
he would thereby run afoul of regulations that appear to 
prohibit this.  See below.  End note.) 
 
¶13.  (SBU) Despite the careful planning, the experiments may 
only take hold in limited areas of Zhejiang province.  Zhejiang 
University's Shi predicts that the pilot projects will find 
fertile ground in growing mid-size cities like Wenzhou, Taizhou, 
Jinhua, and Yiwu, where private finance is already common.  Shi 
told Econoff that in more prosperous cities such as Hangzhou and 
Ningbo, businesses turn more frequently to banks, while in 
poorer areas, there is much less demand for capital. 
 
============================ 
Strict Controls for Small Lenders During the Trial Period 
============================ 
 
¶14.  (SBU) The PBOC Hangzhou's Zhou and the Zhejiang Financial 
 
SHANGHAI 00000550  004 OF 004 
 
 
Affairs Office's Pan both averred that several factors will 
assure that small lending companies do not destabilize financial 
markets: 
 
-- Investors in the small lending companies are strictly vetted. 
 The lead investor cannot control more than 20 percent of the 
firm's capital, and the other investors cannot control more than 
10 percent each.  Investors must have a history of good 
corporate governance and social responsibility.  And investors 
should have debt ratios of no more than 70 percent, have net 
assets of greater than RMB50 million, and net profits of more 
than 15 million for three years. 
 
-- Small lending companies are encouraged to partner with banks, 
which provide additional oversight.  A small lending company can 
borrow up to an additional 50 percent in capital from a bank, 
which gives the bank incentive to assure the small lending 
company is engaged in prudent lending practices.  In addition, 
Lianxin's Chen noted that small lending companies' loans are 
channeled through bank accounts, providing transparency. 
 
-- Small lending companies are not allowed to be overexposed to 
a single borrower.  Seventy percent of loans must be in the 
range of RMB500,000. 
 
-- Small lending companies are not allowed to take deposits, 
thereby limiting the impact of any potential bankruptcy on 
average citizens.  Zhou emphasized strongly that any small 
lending company found to be taking deposits will be shut down. 
 
-- Small lending companies are restricted to lending to 
companies within the county where they have been established, 
said Lianxin's Chen. 
 
¶15.  (SBU)  In addition, Lianxin's Chen said that he was 
required to submit frequent financial reports to the local 
Finance Bureau and Bureau of Industry and Commerce.  Initially, 
said Chen, the reports were required almost daily, but over time 
the reporting period will be relaxed to monthly. 
 
============================ 
Comment 
============================ 
 
¶16.  (SBU) The pilot projects to establish small lending 
companies appear to have more propaganda value than actual 
substance at present, and are even less likely to have much 
utility in overcoming the macroeconomic factors weighing against 
Zhejiang's SMEs.  Broadly speaking, however, the support from 
the Zhejiang provincial government for the pilot projects, along 
with the strong demand for the small lending company services in 
some localities, indicates that Zhejiang authorities may make 
some limited progress on their motto of confronting the current 
economic crisis while encouraging reforms. 
 
¶17.  (SBU) The alignment of incentives in the pilot program 
would appear to mitigate the potential for corruption and 
self-dealing, although this cannot be guaranteed given the 
reportedly severe capital constraints that firms in Zhejiang are 
facing.  In any case, the structure limits the social stability 
impact of malfeasance by placing a high threshold for investors. 
CAMP