news

our reporter guo jianhang reports from beijing

since the beginning of this year, local finance has accelerated the pace of asset disposal, and rural commercial banks in many places have increased their efforts to realize fixed assets and debt-equity assets.

recently, qinnong bank listed 18 residential properties for transfer at the western property exchange, with a total price of nearly 14 million yuan, which attracted attention from the industry due to its low starting price. similar situations have occurred in many regions. dingbian rural commercial bank in shaanxi has also recently launched a number of commercial and residential properties; laiwu rural commercial bank in shandong has successively launched multiple properties on its official account, including factories, shops, small-property houses and a small number of large-property houses.

china business news reporters learned that different banks have different reasons for real estate liquidation: some rural commercial banks' real estate is left over from foreign investment before the credit unions were transformed into rural commercial banks, and the merger and closure of small and medium-sized banks and branches has caused the original business outlets to be idle. in the context of "reducing costs and increasing efficiency" and "seeking benefits from non-interest assets", they disposed of idle assets externally; some banks have difficulty in recovering loans, and after the auction failed after the judicial auction process, they received the debt-forfeited assets, and were forced to become "landlords" and dispose of the debt-forfeited assets externally. under the influence of various factors, banks in many places have sold houses in batches.

based on the opinions of rural commercial banks and bank real estate auction personnel, the houses currently auctioned by banks are generally 20% to 30% lower than the market price, but the conditions of the houses vary. an on-site inspection should be conducted before purchasing. large-property houses located in the local core area and in good condition are high-quality assets and are in great demand.

more vacant properties listed

the residential information listed for transfer by qinnong bank shows that the prices of all 18 houses are between 640,000 yuan and 1.11 million yuan. the reporter learned that the 18 houses transferred by qinnong bank are the bank's own fixed assets. comparison of prices shows that the lowest-priced house with an area of ​​130.91 square meters has a total price of 606,500 yuan, and the unit price is as low as 4,633 yuan per square meter. from the prices of houses of the same area in the same community shown in the shell app, it can be seen that the listing price of houses on the same floor and the same apartment type is 900,000 yuan, and the unit price is 6,875 yuan per square meter. the transfer price listed by qinnong bank is lower than the listing price of the community.

rural commercial banks and rural credit cooperatives in many places have also disposed of idle assets. public information shows that on september 11, heilongjiang mishan rural commercial bank publicly listed multiple residential houses and shops at the heilongjiang united property exchange. the real estate mainly comes from the original business premises and office buildings, which were vacant after the original branch offices were closed and merged; donglan county rural credit cooperative union publicly auctioned idle assets through the alibaba asset auction platform in early september. the reason for the auction was to further strengthen fixed asset management and optimize asset allocation by publicly auctioning its own high-quality assets.

can ordinary investors buy idle properties owned by banks? what issues should be paid attention to when purchasing such properties? taking the properties listed for transfer by qinnong bank as an example, a person from the western property exchange told reporters: "all properties listed for sale in this round can be sold separately. before purchasing, users are advised to carefully read the precautions displayed on the page, pay attention to the actual status of the house, and whether there are transfer risks and other issues."

information displayed by the western property exchange shows that the property listed by qinnong bank this time was purchased by institutions for investment purposes during the period of shaanxi xinhe (the predecessor of qinnong bank), and it was purchased a long time ago. because the rural credit system has previously undergone credit union system reform, some rural commercial banks have idle properties for a long time and the property rights are complicated.

taking the three properties at yuxiang pavilion, no. 5 jianzhong lane, lianhu district, xi'an, sold by qinnong bank as an example, a person from the western property exchange told reporters that the property certificates of the three properties at yuxiang pavilion, no. 5 jianzhong lane, lianhu district, xi'an show that the rights holder is an individual, and the actual rights holder is shaanxi qinnong rural commercial bank co., ltd. (due to the credit union system reform in 2015, the name of the rights holder has not been changed for various reasons). therefore, there is a certain transfer risk for this property, and any legal risks arising from this shall be borne by both parties to the transaction.

a person from a rural commercial bank told the reporter that due to the credit cooperative restructuring and changes in the regional business environment, rural commercial banks have a certain amount of idle real estate, most of which are used as business outlets. in order to improve asset utilization efficiency and effectively activate idle assets, many rural commercial banks rent out or sell their own properties. one of the reasons behind the rural commercial banks' sale of idle real estate is the reduction in the number of rural financial institutions and the continuous reduction of bank outlets.

as the reform of the rural credit system continues to deepen, more and more provincial and municipal rural commercial banks have emerged. the establishment of provincial and municipal rural commercial banks is also accompanied by the absorption and merger of some legal entities. in the process of merger and absorption, the number of rural financial institutions has been shrinking. on september 4, the financial regulatory administration disclosed the latest list of legal entities of banking financial institutions, showing that in the first half of 2024, the number of rural commercial banks, rural cooperative banks, rural credit cooperatives, and village banks were 1,577, 23, 483, and 1,620, respectively. compared with the data at the end of 2023, the number of rural commercial banks, rural credit cooperatives, and village banks decreased by 30, 16, and 16, respectively, and the number of rural cooperative banks remained unchanged.

the reduction in the number of outlets is also quite obvious. according to incomplete statistics from the financial license information inquiry system of the financial regulatory administration, 1,573 bank branches have withdrawn nationwide from january to july 2024.

“picking up bargains” to repay debt assets

rural commercial banks are not only accelerating the disposal of idle assets, but are also strengthening the disposal of debt-collateralized assets.

according to incomplete statistics from reporters, heilongjiang tahe rural commercial bank, heilongjiang luobei rural commercial bank, guizhou zhenyuan rural commercial bank, and laiwu rural commercial bank have been auctioning off collateral assets recently. the auction prices of some collateral assets are relatively low. for example, some houses auctioned by heilongjiang luobei rural commercial bank show that the starting price of a house with an area of ​​101.44 square meters is only 83,000 yuan; the other 7 houses for sale have an area of ​​72 square meters to 89 square meters, and the lowest starting price is only 31,500 yuan.

regarding the purchase of residential properties for debt repayment, alibaba auction's real estate auction service provider told reporters: "there are significant differences between purchasing debt repayment assets and foreclosure auction houses: in terms of the transfer method, most debt repayment assets have been transferred to the bank. this type of asset is high-quality, and the transfer method is not much different from the general second-hand housing transaction transfer. the property rights of foreclosure houses are in the name of individuals, and the debt rights are in the name of banks. the transfer is based on the ruling issued by the court. in addition, in terms of price, the prices of debt repayment assets are mostly attractive. take a self-owned (debt repayment asset) property auctioned by a rural commercial bank in shaanxi province as an example. after the first round of auction, the property was sold at a 10% discount for the second round of auction. after the second round of auction, the price was reduced by another 10% and the bank took over the asset and put it online for auction again."

in fact, for potential buyers, the price of collateral assets may be more advantageous than that of foreclosed properties, but from the perspective of banks, they are often "forced" to accept collateral assets and become "landlords."

wang xudong of the people's court of huizhou district, huangshan city, anhui province, pointed out in his research report on the difficulty of using property to repay debts in financial enforcement cases: "the problem of commercial banks' ineffective collection of non-performing loans has become increasingly prominent, and it is increasingly difficult to realize them through judicial disposal. mortgage assets have not been auctioned off, and using property to repay debts has become an important means for commercial banks to resolve creditor risks and avoid and reduce asset losses. however, choosing to digest such non-performing assets through the method of using property to repay debts cannot completely achieve the purpose of capital recovery, so commercial banks are generally reluctant to choose to dispose of assets through the method of using property to repay debts."

the reason why rural commercial banks have to speed up the disposal of idle assets and collateralized assets is related to the pressure on banks' profitability.

public data shows that in the first half of 2024, 42 a-share listed banks achieved a total net profit of 1,091.454 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.37% compared with 1,087.436 billion yuan in the same period last year, with the growth rate slowing down.

a relevant official from the state financial supervision and administration administration publicly stated at a press conference held by the state information office on august 21 this year: "the continued decline in loan interest rates, the narrowing of net interest margins and the decline in service charges are the main reasons for the continued slowdown in the growth rate of net profits of china's commercial banks in recent years." faced with the pressure of slowing profit growth, in recent years, commercial banks have adopted various means to tap internal potential, reduce costs and increase efficiency to maintain the banks' profitability within a reasonable range. many rural commercial banks have set the goal of "demanding benefits from non-interest assets."

at the beginning of 2024, the gansu rural credit cooperatives launched a "100-day campaign" to collect and dispose of non-performing assets. many legal entities under its jurisdiction thoroughly implemented the requirements of the provincial rural credit cooperatives for the collection and disposal of debt-settled assets, kept a close eye on the collection and disposal targets, and concentrated their efforts to accelerate the campaign; the shaanxi rural credit cooperatives union also increased its efforts to resolve and recover risky assets, and many legal entities under its jurisdiction actively implemented them. for example, information on the official website of shaanxi zhashui rural commercial bank showed that it conscientiously implemented the general work requirements of the provincial cooperative, followed the "ice-breaking operation" arrangements for asset risk disposal and resolution, fully understood the bottom line, actively formulated disposal plans, and always regarded the disposal and realization of debt-settled assets as an important means for the bank to strengthen non-credit asset management.

in fact, in order to further standardize the management of debt-collateralized assets, avoid and reduce asset losses, and improve the efficiency of recovering non-performing assets, rural commercial banks in some provinces have launched a comprehensive and in-depth cleanup and investigation of the debt-collateralized assets received in previous years in 2023 to accelerate the rapid realization of debt-collateralized assets.