1. The status of factoring business of China's commercial banks
In June 2012, the Ministry of Commerce launched commercial factoring pilot work in parts of the country, and factoring companies across the country have only gradually developed from a combined total of more than 70. In 2017, China's commercial factoring business volume has reached 215 trillion yuan, an increase of 25% year-on-year. The accumulative accounts receivable of industrial enterprises above the national scale have reached 13.5 trillion yuan. By 2018, the number of factoring company registrations has exceeded 8,000. The number is growing fast. According to the Economic Reference, there are more than 100,000 SMEs using factoring. The government pointed out in the "China Commercial Factoring Industry Development Report 2016": Based on the current financial market demand, the level of China's factoring business is constantly improving. In the future development path, it will definitely be a measure of financing trade and risk in China. Excellent performance in assessment and contingency strategies.
In developed countries in the European region, the general mode of commercial banks operating factoring business is to promote the comprehensive development of international factoring business by establishing specialized subsidiary operations. At present, in China's domestic market, factoring business is only managed and promoted as a product or a separate business by some relevant departments. Almost no separate operating department is established, nor will it use the form of subsidiary companies to develop factoring business . According to the statistics of the International Factoring Federation, compared to 2.40 billion euros in 2015, the total amount of global factoring business decreased by 1.2 billion euros in 2016. Therefore, in the development process of international factoring, we should continue to strengthen the transmission and supervision of information, maximize the role of self-regulatory organizations in the industry, explore the implementation of financial support policies for the commercial factoring industry, and promote the international factoring business of China ’s commercial banks. development of.
2. Types of risks in the development of factoring business of commercial banks
Most of the business of international factoring in China is promoted by commercial banks, of which the domestic factoring business occupies the majority. The factoring business of China's commercial banks is progressing rapidly, and has achieved certain results in recent years. At the same time, there is also the problem that risks cannot be passed on. Judging from the experience of developing factoring business in various countries in the world, the risks faced by factoring companies may appear in all aspects of the factoring process, such as the difficulty in recovering the importers ’accounts, the credit risk between the import and export parties, and the confusion of the target customers , Lack of relevant laws and regulations of factoring business and internal operational risks, etc. Specifically, there are mainly the following aspects.
2.1 Industry risks
In terms of the development of global international factoring business, the scale of factoring business in Europe, Britain, France and Germany is relatively large. The number of factorers and factoring business in European countries are higher than in other countries and regions. Due to the early development of foreign business factoring business, factoring agents have accumulated advanced business experience, coupled with a perfect legal environment, so that foreign factoring companies have great advantages and international competitiveness in the field of international factoring business. In China, international factoring business is considered to belong to the category of financial industry or financial innovation industry. Due to the ambiguous positioning of the industry itself, there is no effective supervision of targeted laws and regulations. Factoring practitioners in commercial banks generally lack the ability to identify customer credit ratings, and target customer positioning is inaccurate. Most commercial banks position their target customers in already mature group companies, while ignoring the development potential of SMEs. For high-quality growth-oriented SMEs with strong internal and external trade cash flow, factoring business will have a great positive effect on the effective operation of the company's capital turnover and the speed of obtaining funds. In addition, practitioners have great deficiencies in theoretical knowledge and practical experience. The lack of professional knowledge and experience has led to the inability to effectively combine factoring business with the needs of the enterprise according to the actual situation of the enterprise during the business development process.
2.2 Credit risk
In the double factoring business, the factoring financing provided by the commercial bank to the exporter helps the exporter to recover the payment. Therefore, the behavior of the exporter will directly affect the interests of the commercial bank. When commercial banks do not fully understand the credit status of exporters, commercial banks will face hidden dangers. When the exporter has flaws in the importer ’s performance, the importer ’s reason to refuse payment will cause the bank ’s payment to be unrecoverable; the importer ’s deliberate concealment of its credit status and business status will also cause the bank to face risks. Therefore, commercial banks will encounter the risk of fraud by importers and exporters when conducting factoring business.
Most of the global trade field is the buyer's market, and most Chinese companies have to use credit sales to conduct foreign trade. However, the contract binding force in China is not strong, and there are various problems in the actual operation process. In particular, SMEs themselves have high competition pressures, weak capital strength and internal system management issues. In the buyer ’s strong transaction, they will be in a relatively weak state. It is difficult for SMEs to obtain the corresponding payment from the strong buyer on time. The subsequent development of SMEs is compounded. The current situation of China's overall business environment will also lead to the risk that commercial banks will not be able to return loan funds to the pool in a timely manner.
2.3 Operational risk
The factoring business provides comprehensive financial services, and its business scope includes trade financing, processing and collection of accounts receivable, and credit risk guarantees. Due to its wide range of services, the international factoring business determines that it is a financial business with high technical requirements and high professionalism. Therefore, the professionalism of the staff engaged in factoring business is high. When processing the formalities of factoring business, the relevant documents and documents are not carried out in a uniform format during the transmission process. Since commercial banks lack professional institutions and personnel, they cannot accurately judge the validity, completeness and rationality of relevant documents when reviewing relevant documents. Moreover, in the actual operation of factoring business, most commercial banks have not yet formed a unified set of business operation standards, and there is a lack of specialized factoring business departments to digitize complex procedures.
Due to the characteristics of commercial banks' own financial services, most commercial banks have not set up special institutions to deal with business issues such as the generation of trade disputes and the difficulty of contract performance by both factoring parties, and there is a lack of specialized dispute resolution institutions. This leads to the risk that the bank has no standards to follow when it encounters disputes in the factoring business, and it cannot guarantee that the import factor will not be biased towards the import company for profit reasons, and in the trade dispute, the responsibility will be pushed to the export company and the export factor .
2.4 Legal risks
There are two types of legal risks: one is the incompatibility of international practice with our country ’s laws; the other is the difference in the choice of applicable regulations by trading countries. In China ’s only laws and regulations involving international factoring, there are no clear regulations on the operation process of international factoring business, risk disputes, etc. Compared with several international laws currently in force, China ’s supervision and transfer of claims Almost blank, there is no specific legal support for judicial practice. When legal risks occur in the factoring business of Chinese banks, there is no proper way to deal with them, and they cannot adapt to the development requirements of trade globalization and capital financing globalization.
The core content of international factoring business is the transfer of creditor's rights, that is, the transfer of the rights corresponding to the accounts receivable. China's provisions on the transfer of creditor's rights allow both parties to transfer their creditor's rights, but many foreign countries clearly stipulate that the creditor's right cannot be transferred. Banks also do not have very detailed standards for handling the transfer of creditor ’s rights of receivables applied by export companies for factoring. In the selection of factoring regulations for the country where the factoring agent is located, if they do not understand the laws of the country where the importing factoring agent is located The regulations restrict the creditor's rights. In the import and export trade, if the creditor's right transferred by the export factor is accepted blindly, there will be the risk that the creditor's right will be illegal or the transfer of the creditor's right will be incomplete, and the bank will face the risk that the creditor's right cannot be fulfilled.
Third, the bank's countermeasures and suggestions for the development of factoring business
3.1 Establish and improve relevant laws and regulations
In 2015 and 2016, the Ministry of Commerce and the China Banking Association issued the “Measures for the Management of Commercial Factoring Enterprises” and the “Code of Factoring Business for the Chinese Banking Industry” to facilitate commercial banks to better supervise and manage corporate behaviors, as well as their own behavior specification. However, a new type of financial instrument, such as international factoring in China, urgently needs a complete set of operating standards and institutional laws to support it. The judiciary should introduce relevant laws and regulations and judicial interpretations of factoring business as soon as possible to clearly define the factoring business in China and reduce trade disputes and frictions.
3.2 Improve the credit evaluation system
First, we must establish a national-level macro credit management system to regulate the collection and use of credit information. Second, set up a special agency to provide factoring services such as credit rating management and credit guarantee for factoring companies. Finally, we must strengthen the establishment and improvement of the internal credit management system of import and export enterprises, improve their own risk prevention awareness and integrity awareness, and create a good business market environment.
3.3 Improve the dispute resolution mechanism
It is necessary to establish a specialized trade dispute handling department. The business department shall follow specific trade dispute cases according to the handling procedures and regulations, and follow up on the handling of trade disputes in a timely manner and provide feedback. At present, the International Factoring Association has formulated a relatively complete international factoring arbitration system and rules, but China still relies on local court judgments to resolve international factoring disputes. The court personnel lack professional knowledge, which is not conducive to international factoring business disputes. solve. The use of arbitration can make up for the handling of judicial and administrative organs, and take advantage of the impartiality of arbitration to effectively resolve international trade disputes.
3.4 Improving the quality of factoring business services
Commercial banks can draw on the experience of factor managers in Western developed countries to provide comprehensive financial services across related industries. Try to cooperate with insurance companies to diversify risks, integrate multiple factoring business models, and develop innovative domestic factoring products. Leveraging on the advantages of commercial banks' own credit system management, according to the credit rating of the enterprise, it can provide multi-faceted trade financing and other financial services to foreign trade enterprises by reducing the margin ratio and increasing the credit limit. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the theoretical level and operational skills of factoring practitioners. Invite experts to conduct international factoring business training, participate in professional courses and exams organized by the International Factoring Federation, obtain professional qualification certificates, and improve the theoretical and practical level of factoring business personnel to ensure the quality of factoring business services .
