Tuesday, June 27, 2006
The NAO has apparently discovered another series of frauds and illegal lending in the ABC. That in itself is not surprising. At the end of 2005, ABC still had NPL ratio of over 26%, much higher than that of the other Big Four banks. What is really disturbing (okay, maybe not) about this is that this comes on top of an additional 1.5% in NPLs discovered during an internal audit last September. In fact the results of this audit had been circulating in official circles since the end of last year, and the government finally decided to release the report. As there is mounting lobbying by the ABC to push forward restructuring, the State Council might be using the release of this report to slow down the impetus for restructuring. This is partly because ABC is far from ready to restructure, much less list. Moreover, the State Council likes to keep the ABC in its current form, completely controlled by the state. This is because the current administration continues to see the ABC as a powerful instrument to provide liquidity for rural development. Although the vicious cycle of government intervention and bank moral hazard is present in the other banks, it is the dominant force that drives ABC.
China Reveals $1.1B Bank Fraud
Corruption Threatens Foreign Investment
By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 27, 2006; 11:10 AM
SHANGHAI, June 27 -- The Chinese government's disclosure this week of $1.1 billion worth of fraud at one of the country's largest state-owned banks underscores the risks confronting foreign investors and the precarious nature of China's corruption-ridden financial system.
China's National Audit Office on Monday announced that an examination of records at the Agricultural Bank of China -- one of four state-owned giants -- uncovered 51 cases of criminal wrongdoing involving 157 people during 2004. The state audit also found evidence of $1.8 billion in improperly handled deposits, and $3.5 billion in illegal loans.
The latest details of fraud come as China presses to eradicate the taint of corruption from its state-owned banks as it courts foreign capital in a bid to improve management practices. China's leaders are particularly keen to fix its ailing lenders ahead of next year, when foreign banks will finally be allowed to conduct business inside China in local currency. That is expected to pose a grave challenge to domestic lenders, whose managers have been nurtured by decades of state capital infusions and a system governed more by personal connections than consideration of the bottom line.
The most recent additions to a lengthy roster of bank-fraud cases brings to the fore a basic question about the future of China's financial system: Are the state disclosures a sign that the government is indeed serious about fixing the troubles, or just another indication of the extent of the problems in a fundamentally shaky system? Analysts saw a little bit of both. While the state is indeed intent on a fix, the challenges are deep.
"This case that has emerged at the Agricultural Bank of China is just a minor one among the overall problems with China's state owned banks," said Yi Xianrong, a director at the China Academy of Social Sciences' financial research institute in Beijing. "Lots more such cases are not discovered and will be discovered sooner or later, as the most serious problems involve medium- and long-term loans."
He cited deep institutional problems at the banks, including a lack of internal controls. "More fundamentally, the system appoints bank leaders based on administrative power rather than on market performance," Yi said. "Real changes have yet to come."
For foreign investors, the stakes tied to reform are high. Last year, Bank of America paid $3 billion for a 10 percent stake in the Bank of China, with the Royal Bank of Scotland taking another 10 percent of that lender. This month, Bank of China raised some $9.7 billion through a stock offering of stock in Hong Kong, following a $9.2 billion stock offering there by China Construction Bank.
Last August, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sank $3 billion into China's largest lender, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, capturing a 10 percent stake. The bank has said it will pursue a stock offering worth some $12 billion in Hong Kong sometime this fall.
Foreign investors are eager to lock up stakes of banks in China's huge, sizzling economy. With stock and bond markets still in their infancy, China's four largest state banks essentially dictate where capital goes in China. But the foreigners are sinking their money into a financial system that has traditionally functioned more as an artery of cash for companies owned by the Communist Party-led government then as careful arbiters of risk and reward.
Private economists estimate that China's banks are now choked with $500 billion in bad loans, making the system vulnerable to a shock. Those worries have heightened in recent weeks with the release of government data showing a surge in lending during the first five months of the year, despite government caps on investment in red-hot sectors such as real estate and automobile manufacturing.
On Tuesday, the debt rating agency Standard & Poor's underscored those concerns, declaring that China's banks face "increasing vulnerability" from the widening volume of lending. The agency credited China's banks with some improvements in their governance, but stressed that "their developing credit and risk management systems are likely to be severely stretched by rapidly changing economic conditions."
The Agricultural Bank has long been seen as the most flawed of the four state-owned giants. Four years ago, bank officials announced plans to embrace consumer finance as a way of weaning itself off more politically motivated lending. The bank moved aggressively into the fledgling business of auto finance, seeking to profit as China's growing middle class embraces the family car.
In interviews, bank officials then acknowledged that credit checking systems were virtually non-existent in China. They said that so long as would-be borrowers accurately disclosed their addresses and incomes, few applicants would be turned away.
This week's disclosures added to the evidence that the resulting consumer finance frenzy has turned sour: The state auditors said that among the biggest areas of fraud in the cases it discovered were car loans and home mortgages.
"The banks have been desperately expanding loans including consumer loans and real-estate loans," Yi said. "The problem won't be visible until real estate prices fall dramatically, which will happen sooner or later. The problem with individual consumer loans is serious."
中国农业银行2004年度资产负债损益审计结果
（二○○六年六月十五日公告）
根据《中华人民共和国审计法》的规定，审计署于2005年对中国农业银行（以下简称农业银行）总行及其北京、天津、上海等21家分支机构2004年度资产负债损益的真实、合法和效益情况进行了审计。
一、审计情况及审计意见
审计结果表明，近年来农业银行认真贯彻落实党中央、国务院关于经济、金融工作的方针政策和中国银行业监督管理委员会的监管要求，将加快有效发展作为兴行的第一要务，积极开拓市场，推进业务发展，加强内部管理，资产质量有所好转，财务状况逐步改善，经营风险不断缓解。据农业银行数据反映，2004年，该行实现不良贷款余额和不良贷款率双下降，不良贷款余额为6892.97亿元，不良贷款率为26.77％，比年初分别下降23亿元和3.8个百分点；全年实现经营利润320亿元、税前利润84.75亿元，消化非信贷风险资产历史包袱191亿元；通过整合机构，全年减少人员2.25万人、撤并网点5134个，银行竞争力逐步增强。但审计也发现，农业银行在经营管理、风险控制等方面还存在一些违法违规问题和薄弱环节，需要加以纠正和改进。
（一）违规经营问题比较突出。主要反映在三方面：一是违规办理存款业务142.73亿元。主要问题是违规使用存款科目、违规开立存款账户，个别单位甚至违规动用客户存款。如，黑龙江分行营业部中山支行利用银行特种转账凭证擅自动用客户存款1.81亿元，用于为其他企业开具银行承兑汇票的保证金和提供虚假出资证明。二是违规发放贷款276.18亿元。主要表现在汽车消费贷款、土地储备贷款和扶贫贴息贷款等方面。如，北京昌平区支行在明知北京日泽丰成经贸有限公司不具备汽车消费贷款担保资格，而且所提供的申请贷款资料内容虚假的情况下，发放个人汽车消费贷款达4.6亿元，其中部分资金被该公司法定代表人霍民挪用到异地投资，截至2005年9月已形成不良贷款1.21亿元。三是违规办理票据业务97.18亿元。农业银行一些基层分支机构对票据业务审核把关不严，存在大量违规操作。如审计抽查河南信阳市分行2004年办理的贴现业务额24.7亿元，其中无真实贸易背景业务额达21.9亿元, 比例高达89%。
（二）涉嫌违法犯罪案件未得到有效遏制。本次审计共发现各类涉嫌违法犯罪案件线索51起，涉案金额86.84亿元，涉案责任人157名。这些案件既有外部人员恶意骗贷，也有农业银行部分员工内外勾结参与作案。例如，四川遂宁市射洪县支行原行长谭维彬、市中区支行原副行长闵远林与证券公司人员相互勾结，为其骗取个人股票质押贷款1.32亿元，其中1.18亿元被挪用于炒股，损失7500万元以上。
（三）部分信贷业务存在潜在风险。一是高校贷款。近年来高校贷款规模不断扩大，而一些高校自有资金不足，其他还贷资金来源也很有限，使银行贷款面临潜在风险。如，山东某学院2004年末银行贷款余额高达6.53亿元，日均利息支出10多万元，靠财政拨款和学校学费收入结余还贷难度很大。另外，当前高校贷款普遍以学费收费权作质押，而学费收入属财政性资金，实行“收支两条线”管理，一旦高校贷款到期不能偿还，银行难以真正行使对收费权的质押权力。二是担保公司担保的贷款。主要是一些担保公司存在注册资金不实和违规超额担保的问题，应当引起高度关注。
此外，审计还发现农业银行违反财务会计制度问题金额12.67亿元，其中会计核算不实11.82亿元，私设“小金库” 8492.8万元。
对审计发现的上述问题，审计署已依法出具了审计报告，并下达了审计决定书。对农业银行违规经营、信贷业务存在潜在风险等问题，已移送银监会处理，并责成农业银行认真纠正和整改；对财务管理和会计核算方面的违规问题，已责成农业银行调整相关账目、认真整改、追究相关人员责任；对涉嫌违法犯罪线索，已移交司法机关查处。
针对审计发现的问题，审计署建议：农业银行应加快推进内部各项改革，进一步完善公司治理结构，健全内部经营机制，增强风险管理和依法合规经营意识，严控操作风险的发生;应采取有效措施，加大对基层分支机构的管理力度，尤其要加强对基层分支机构“一把手”和重要岗位人员的监督。对当前高校贷款、担保公司担保贷款等业务可能存在的风险，以及汽车消费贷款、票据业务、土地储备贷款等违规问题发生较多的业务，银监会应进一步加强监管，完善相关制度。为了坚决遏制当前金融领域案件多发的势头，应进一步完善公安、银监、审计、监察等部门和各商业银行共同打击金融犯罪的协作机制，深入开展案件专项治理工作。
二、审计发现问题的整改情况
农业银行高度重视并积极配合这次审计工作，针对审计发现的问题及时进行整改，有些已取得初步成效。一是严肃查处重大违法违规问题责任人。农业银行对审计发现的重大违法违规及提示的风险问题进行了严肃查处，目前已办结22项，处理责任人95名。二是加强信贷业务风险管理。针对信贷业务操作风险控制不力的问题，农业银行进一步加强了信贷业务制度建设，已制定或正在研究制定、修订的制度有18项。同时，在全系统组织开展了法人客户信贷操作风险大检查和个人贷款操作风险专项治理活动，加强了信贷在线监控。三是加强对基层分支机构的管控。针对基层分支机构管理薄弱的问题，农业银行加快内部审计体制改革，推行审计派驻制度，截至2005年末已组建了覆盖17家分行的11个审计派出机构，并对基层营业机构会计主管实行了委派制；同时，完善现行考核指标，实行了以经济利润为核心指标的绩效考核办法。四是加强资产质量分类管理和财会基础工作。针对资产质量反映不实和会计核算中存在的问题，农业银行对全行资产风险状况进行了清查摸底，进一步严格了借新还旧贷款管理，全面启动了非信贷资产风险分类工作，加大了不良资产清收和处置力度，并对财会工作中存在的问题认真进行了纠正和改进。
对审计发现的问题及提出的建议，银监会等有关部门给予高度重视：认真查处农业银行存在的违规问题，积极完善相关制度，防范信贷业务中的潜在风险。
China Reveals $1.1B Bank Fraud
Corruption Threatens Foreign Investment
By Peter S. Goodman
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 27, 2006; 11:10 AM
SHANGHAI, June 27 -- The Chinese government's disclosure this week of $1.1 billion worth of fraud at one of the country's largest state-owned banks underscores the risks confronting foreign investors and the precarious nature of China's corruption-ridden financial system.
China's National Audit Office on Monday announced that an examination of records at the Agricultural Bank of China -- one of four state-owned giants -- uncovered 51 cases of criminal wrongdoing involving 157 people during 2004. The state audit also found evidence of $1.8 billion in improperly handled deposits, and $3.5 billion in illegal loans.
The latest details of fraud come as China presses to eradicate the taint of corruption from its state-owned banks as it courts foreign capital in a bid to improve management practices. China's leaders are particularly keen to fix its ailing lenders ahead of next year, when foreign banks will finally be allowed to conduct business inside China in local currency. That is expected to pose a grave challenge to domestic lenders, whose managers have been nurtured by decades of state capital infusions and a system governed more by personal connections than consideration of the bottom line.
The most recent additions to a lengthy roster of bank-fraud cases brings to the fore a basic question about the future of China's financial system: Are the state disclosures a sign that the government is indeed serious about fixing the troubles, or just another indication of the extent of the problems in a fundamentally shaky system? Analysts saw a little bit of both. While the state is indeed intent on a fix, the challenges are deep.
"This case that has emerged at the Agricultural Bank of China is just a minor one among the overall problems with China's state owned banks," said Yi Xianrong, a director at the China Academy of Social Sciences' financial research institute in Beijing. "Lots more such cases are not discovered and will be discovered sooner or later, as the most serious problems involve medium- and long-term loans."
He cited deep institutional problems at the banks, including a lack of internal controls. "More fundamentally, the system appoints bank leaders based on administrative power rather than on market performance," Yi said. "Real changes have yet to come."
For foreign investors, the stakes tied to reform are high. Last year, Bank of America paid $3 billion for a 10 percent stake in the Bank of China, with the Royal Bank of Scotland taking another 10 percent of that lender. This month, Bank of China raised some $9.7 billion through a stock offering of stock in Hong Kong, following a $9.2 billion stock offering there by China Construction Bank.
Last August, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sank $3 billion into China's largest lender, the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, capturing a 10 percent stake. The bank has said it will pursue a stock offering worth some $12 billion in Hong Kong sometime this fall.
Foreign investors are eager to lock up stakes of banks in China's huge, sizzling economy. With stock and bond markets still in their infancy, China's four largest state banks essentially dictate where capital goes in China. But the foreigners are sinking their money into a financial system that has traditionally functioned more as an artery of cash for companies owned by the Communist Party-led government then as careful arbiters of risk and reward.
Private economists estimate that China's banks are now choked with $500 billion in bad loans, making the system vulnerable to a shock. Those worries have heightened in recent weeks with the release of government data showing a surge in lending during the first five months of the year, despite government caps on investment in red-hot sectors such as real estate and automobile manufacturing.
On Tuesday, the debt rating agency Standard & Poor's underscored those concerns, declaring that China's banks face "increasing vulnerability" from the widening volume of lending. The agency credited China's banks with some improvements in their governance, but stressed that "their developing credit and risk management systems are likely to be severely stretched by rapidly changing economic conditions."
The Agricultural Bank has long been seen as the most flawed of the four state-owned giants. Four years ago, bank officials announced plans to embrace consumer finance as a way of weaning itself off more politically motivated lending. The bank moved aggressively into the fledgling business of auto finance, seeking to profit as China's growing middle class embraces the family car.
In interviews, bank officials then acknowledged that credit checking systems were virtually non-existent in China. They said that so long as would-be borrowers accurately disclosed their addresses and incomes, few applicants would be turned away.
This week's disclosures added to the evidence that the resulting consumer finance frenzy has turned sour: The state auditors said that among the biggest areas of fraud in the cases it discovered were car loans and home mortgages.
"The banks have been desperately expanding loans including consumer loans and real-estate loans," Yi said. "The problem won't be visible until real estate prices fall dramatically, which will happen sooner or later. The problem with individual consumer loans is serious."
中国农业银行2004年度资产负债损益审计结果
（二○○六年六月十五日公告）
根据《中华人民共和国审计法》的规定，审计署于2005年对中国农业银行（以下简称农业银行）总行及其北京、天津、上海等21家分支机构2004年度资产负债损益的真实、合法和效益情况进行了审计。
一、审计情况及审计意见
审计结果表明，近年来农业银行认真贯彻落实党中央、国务院关于经济、金融工作的方针政策和中国银行业监督管理委员会的监管要求，将加快有效发展作为兴行的第一要务，积极开拓市场，推进业务发展，加强内部管理，资产质量有所好转，财务状况逐步改善，经营风险不断缓解。据农业银行数据反映，2004年，该行实现不良贷款余额和不良贷款率双下降，不良贷款余额为6892.97亿元，不良贷款率为26.77％，比年初分别下降23亿元和3.8个百分点；全年实现经营利润320亿元、税前利润84.75亿元，消化非信贷风险资产历史包袱191亿元；通过整合机构，全年减少人员2.25万人、撤并网点5134个，银行竞争力逐步增强。但审计也发现，农业银行在经营管理、风险控制等方面还存在一些违法违规问题和薄弱环节，需要加以纠正和改进。
（一）违规经营问题比较突出。主要反映在三方面：一是违规办理存款业务142.73亿元。主要问题是违规使用存款科目、违规开立存款账户，个别单位甚至违规动用客户存款。如，黑龙江分行营业部中山支行利用银行特种转账凭证擅自动用客户存款1.81亿元，用于为其他企业开具银行承兑汇票的保证金和提供虚假出资证明。二是违规发放贷款276.18亿元。主要表现在汽车消费贷款、土地储备贷款和扶贫贴息贷款等方面。如，北京昌平区支行在明知北京日泽丰成经贸有限公司不具备汽车消费贷款担保资格，而且所提供的申请贷款资料内容虚假的情况下，发放个人汽车消费贷款达4.6亿元，其中部分资金被该公司法定代表人霍民挪用到异地投资，截至2005年9月已形成不良贷款1.21亿元。三是违规办理票据业务97.18亿元。农业银行一些基层分支机构对票据业务审核把关不严，存在大量违规操作。如审计抽查河南信阳市分行2004年办理的贴现业务额24.7亿元，其中无真实贸易背景业务额达21.9亿元, 比例高达89%。
（二）涉嫌违法犯罪案件未得到有效遏制。本次审计共发现各类涉嫌违法犯罪案件线索51起，涉案金额86.84亿元，涉案责任人157名。这些案件既有外部人员恶意骗贷，也有农业银行部分员工内外勾结参与作案。例如，四川遂宁市射洪县支行原行长谭维彬、市中区支行原副行长闵远林与证券公司人员相互勾结，为其骗取个人股票质押贷款1.32亿元，其中1.18亿元被挪用于炒股，损失7500万元以上。
（三）部分信贷业务存在潜在风险。一是高校贷款。近年来高校贷款规模不断扩大，而一些高校自有资金不足，其他还贷资金来源也很有限，使银行贷款面临潜在风险。如，山东某学院2004年末银行贷款余额高达6.53亿元，日均利息支出10多万元，靠财政拨款和学校学费收入结余还贷难度很大。另外，当前高校贷款普遍以学费收费权作质押，而学费收入属财政性资金，实行“收支两条线”管理，一旦高校贷款到期不能偿还，银行难以真正行使对收费权的质押权力。二是担保公司担保的贷款。主要是一些担保公司存在注册资金不实和违规超额担保的问题，应当引起高度关注。
此外，审计还发现农业银行违反财务会计制度问题金额12.67亿元，其中会计核算不实11.82亿元，私设“小金库” 8492.8万元。
对审计发现的上述问题，审计署已依法出具了审计报告，并下达了审计决定书。对农业银行违规经营、信贷业务存在潜在风险等问题，已移送银监会处理，并责成农业银行认真纠正和整改；对财务管理和会计核算方面的违规问题，已责成农业银行调整相关账目、认真整改、追究相关人员责任；对涉嫌违法犯罪线索，已移交司法机关查处。
针对审计发现的问题，审计署建议：农业银行应加快推进内部各项改革，进一步完善公司治理结构，健全内部经营机制，增强风险管理和依法合规经营意识，严控操作风险的发生;应采取有效措施，加大对基层分支机构的管理力度，尤其要加强对基层分支机构“一把手”和重要岗位人员的监督。对当前高校贷款、担保公司担保贷款等业务可能存在的风险，以及汽车消费贷款、票据业务、土地储备贷款等违规问题发生较多的业务，银监会应进一步加强监管，完善相关制度。为了坚决遏制当前金融领域案件多发的势头，应进一步完善公安、银监、审计、监察等部门和各商业银行共同打击金融犯罪的协作机制，深入开展案件专项治理工作。
二、审计发现问题的整改情况
农业银行高度重视并积极配合这次审计工作，针对审计发现的问题及时进行整改，有些已取得初步成效。一是严肃查处重大违法违规问题责任人。农业银行对审计发现的重大违法违规及提示的风险问题进行了严肃查处，目前已办结22项，处理责任人95名。二是加强信贷业务风险管理。针对信贷业务操作风险控制不力的问题，农业银行进一步加强了信贷业务制度建设，已制定或正在研究制定、修订的制度有18项。同时，在全系统组织开展了法人客户信贷操作风险大检查和个人贷款操作风险专项治理活动，加强了信贷在线监控。三是加强对基层分支机构的管控。针对基层分支机构管理薄弱的问题，农业银行加快内部审计体制改革，推行审计派驻制度，截至2005年末已组建了覆盖17家分行的11个审计派出机构，并对基层营业机构会计主管实行了委派制；同时，完善现行考核指标，实行了以经济利润为核心指标的绩效考核办法。四是加强资产质量分类管理和财会基础工作。针对资产质量反映不实和会计核算中存在的问题，农业银行对全行资产风险状况进行了清查摸底，进一步严格了借新还旧贷款管理，全面启动了非信贷资产风险分类工作，加大了不良资产清收和处置力度，并对财会工作中存在的问题认真进行了纠正和改进。
对审计发现的问题及提出的建议，银监会等有关部门给予高度重视：认真查处农业银行存在的违规问题，积极完善相关制度，防范信贷业务中的潜在风险。
Comments:
Post a Comment
