(A) Postal savings lack real independence, and postal group companies may become "cash machines"
According to the "Postal System Reform Plan" adopted by the the State Council executive meeting in 25 years, the State Post Bureau was established as the national postal management institution; Set up China Post Group Company to operate all kinds of postal services; Set up a postal savings bank to realize the standardized operation of financial business. In the past, postal savings and ordinary postal services were not separated in terms of accounts, personnel and office facilities. Since 1998, the postal service has been in a state of loss for a long time. In 23 years, the state abolished the subsidy for postal services, and postal savings can obtain the transfer interest rate from the People's Bank, which is much higher than the depositor's deposit interest rate. Therefore, the interest difference has become an important profit source for postal services, which is used to subsidize ordinary postal services. Therefore, this postal system reform has touched the basic interests of many postal workers, and there is a lack of enthusiasm for reform within the postal service. According to the reform process formulated by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the Postal Savings Bank should be listed in June+February of 26, but by March of 27, the Postal Savings Bank had not been formally established. The newly established Postal Savings Bank is still wholly owned by China Post Group Corporation, with Liu Andong, general manager of China Post Group Corporation, as its chairman and Tao Liming, former director of Postal Savings and Remittance Bureau of State Post Bureau, as its president. Postal savings bank still maintains close ties with postal group companies and lacks real independence. If the ordinary postal business of the postal group company continues to lose money, and the state does not provide financial subsidies to it, the Postal Savings Bank will inevitably become the "cash machine" of the postal group company, which is even more unfavorable to the newly established Postal Savings Bank, which lacks profit-making methods.
(2) The Postal Savings Bank has less capital and insufficient capital adequacy ratio.
As the Postal Savings Bank is unlisted and wholly owned by Postal Group Company, it lacks strategic investors. Its registered capital is 200 million yuan, which is 1/4 of its parent company, Postal Group Company, and its capital is only equivalent to a medium-sized joint-stock commercial bank. With the development of Postal Savings Bank, the risks it faces may gradually expand, and the expansion of assets also requires more capital injection. Improving the capital adequacy ratio can not only enhance the ability of banks to resist financial risks, but also increase the credibility of banks in the financial market. Lack of capital and insufficient capital adequacy ratio have always been problems faced by state-owned commercial banks and joint-stock commercial banks. In order to meet the requirements of capital adequacy ratio, domestic banks have increased their capital by listing, issuing subordinated financial bonds and obtaining capital injection from foreign exchange reserves. However, at the beginning of its establishment, the Postal Savings Bank faced the "congenital deficiency" of capital, and did not introduce strategic investors, nor did it go public for financing through the shareholding system reform.
(C) unreasonable corporate governance structure, weak internal control and risk prevention mechanisms
Postal savings department is only an internal functional department of the post office, not an independent legal entity, so it has not established a perfect internal control mechanism and risk prevention mechanism. Although the CBRC has the right to supervise postal savings, its actual operation is difficult, which leads to the absence of "external supervisors". Postal savings risks are accumulating, employees' risk awareness is weak, internal audit is not strong enough, and rules and regulations are not implemented. Therefore, the phenomenon that postal departments occupy and misappropriate postal savings funds is more serious, and fund cases also occur from time to time. Although the establishment of Postal Savings Bank helps to strengthen the prevention of operational risks and the supervision of CBRC, due to the above historical reasons, it will take time to improve the risk prevention mechanism, and the bank will remain weak in a short time after its establishment.
From the perspective of corporate governance structure, according to the requirements of China Banking Regulatory Commission, the preparation of Postal Savings Bank must follow the corporate governance principle of "separation of the three associations, separation of powers, effective restriction and coordinated development" and establish a standardized system of board of directors, board of supervisors and senior management. However, the Postal Savings Bank is wholly owned by China Post Group Corporation, which is the sole shareholder of the Postal Savings Bank, and has the problem of single ownership structure. The foundation of modern corporate governance structure is equity transparency and equity diversification. Too simple ownership structure will affect the board of directors and the board of supervisors to play their roles and perform their functions, and there is also a lack of interest checks and balances within the company.
(D) the lack of professional financial personnel, personnel business quality is not high.
China Financial Yearbook 25 shows that there are 224,843 postal savers in 24 years, of which 53.7% are informal employees and 67% are college graduates. Postal savings belongs to the postal department, and postal savings and other postal department staff mix posts, especially between grass-roots employees and postal services, which seriously lacks financial experience and professional management. The postal service has long been "only saving but not lending", which leads to a lack of credit experience and understanding of regional credit demand and formal credit procedures. In addition, most of the postal savings funds are deposited in the People's Bank of China for a long time, so there is no risk, and postal savings correspondingly lack risk management talents.
(5) Facing fierce competition.
Foreign banks should lead the Postal Savings Bank in asset scale, management system, financial innovation ability and talent introduction. The advantages of foreign banks over the Postal Savings Bank are: (1) Foreign banks can not only carry out traditional commercial banking business, but also carry out investment banking business. Because China's "Commercial Bank Law" stipulates that commercial banks cannot operate in mixed operations, the business scope of Postal Savings Bank is narrower than that of foreign banks. (2) Foreign banks in China have abundant capital, are supported by banks in their home countries, and have a high level of financial services. However, the service level of Postal Savings Bank is low, which has been criticized by customers, and its electronic and information construction lags behind that of foreign banks. ? (3) Foreign banks have a good incentive system and higher wages. In the past, postal savings was the internal department of the post office, and personnel transfer was through the appointment and dismissal of superiors. The phenomenon of "official standard" is serious, the salary level is much lower than that of foreign banks, and it is impossible to attract outstanding talents. (4) Foreign banks usually set up branches according to economic regions and pay attention to the principle of cost-benefit, while Postal Savings Bank, like state-owned commercial banks, sets up branches according to administrative regions.
Chinese banks such as the "Big Four" state-owned commercial banks and joint-stock commercial banks have long competed with postal savings in their savings business. Compared with Postal Savings Bank, Chinese banks have advantages in corporate governance structure, hardware and equipment, service level and financial strength. Because the Postal Savings Bank and the Postal Group Company share office space, the space is generally smaller than other commercial banks, and there are hidden dangers in security facilities. In the past, postal savings could only carry out private business, but not public business, so it was not as competitive as other commercial banks in terms of customers.
Rural credit cooperatives are the biggest rivals of Postal Savings Bank in rural financial market. Although the rural credit cooperatives are not as good as the Postal Savings Bank in terms of asset quality and payment and settlement system, they have been doing business in rural areas for more than five years and have rich credit experience. At present, they are stepping up reform. In some places, rural credit cooperatives have been reorganized into rural commercial banks, and deposits and withdrawals within and across provinces have been gradually realized. Postal savings began to carry out small-sum pledge loan business in 26 years, which was obviously worse than that of rural credit cooperatives.
Second, the way out for Postal Savings Bank
(1) Revise relevant economic laws and regulations and improve the credit information system.
Due to the early promulgation of some economic laws and regulations, with the rapid development of economy and society, some legal provisions have become outdated. Other laws and regulations stipulate harsh conditions, and there are conflicts between laws, which have produced certain resistance to economic development. Therefore, in order to adapt to the development of the economic situation, the legislature should revise and improve outdated laws and regulations. For example, amend the Guarantee Law, relax the restrictions on collateral, and solve the problem of farmers' loan difficulties; Amend the law on commercial banks to allow commercial banks to operate in mixed operations.
As an important part of the financial ecological environment, the credit system must be accelerated, and its main measures are: (1) to cultivate the credit awareness of citizens and enterprises. The People's Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission can cooperate with the education department to carry out honesty education and establish a good atmosphere of "advocating credit". (2) Promote the construction of credit laws and regulations. The state should formulate a credit law to provide legal basis and guarantee for the construction of credit system. (3) Establish a complete credit information database. The People's Bank of China and the financial supervision department should make joint efforts to collect the credit information of citizens and enterprises in a timely manner, so as to realize national credit information sharing and open inquiry for the whole people.
Posted on the target website (2) The state should give appropriate subsidies to ordinary postal services.
Due to low tariffs, postal services have been lower than the cost, and some rural outlets have been unable to make ends meet. In the past, postal losses were mainly made up by telecom profits. 1998 after the separation of posts and telecommunications, the state subsidized the postal service for 23 years. After that, the profit of postal savings is mainly used to make up for postal losses. Twenty-six years later, the postal tariff was raised, but the problem of postal business loss could not be completely solved. In order to prevent postal group companies from misappropriating the funds of the Postal Savings Bank and promote the initial development of the Postal Savings Bank, the state should give appropriate subsidies to postal services with high operating costs. In 26 years, China's fiscal revenue exceeded 3.9 trillion yuan, an increase of about 800 million yuan over 25 years, which made it possible to restore financial subsidies to postal services. At the same time, the Postal Savings Bank should introduce strategic investors, realize equity diversification, form a situation of checks and balances among shareholders, and prevent a single shareholder from misappropriating the funds of the Postal Savings Bank.
(3) Postal Savings Bank should strive to increase its capital.
As the parent company of the Postal Savings Bank, China Post Group, has less capital and less profits, the Postal Savings Bank can't completely hope that the parent company will increase its capital, so it must rely on other ways to increase its capital. In order to achieve the goal of capital adequacy ratio, the Postal Savings Bank can increase capital in the following ways: (1) The Postal Savings Bank actively carries out business to create profits, and converts some profits into capital through its own accumulation. Due to the lack of profit model and less retained profits, the Postal Savings Bank will encounter certain obstacles and affect its capital increase. (2) Introduce strategic investors. At present, many foreign financial institutions want to enter China's financial market. Their advantages are abundant funds and rich management experience. Postal savings bank should take this opportunity to attract strategic investors. This can not only increase the capital for the Postal Savings Bank and realize the diversification of equity, but also promote the development of the Postal Savings Bank by using the advanced management technology of foreign financial institutions. (3) listing financing. Postal savings bank should carry out shareholding system reform and strive to be listed on domestic and foreign securities markets. At present, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and China Bank have all been listed in many places, and their share prices are relatively high. (4) Strive to inject foreign exchange reserves into the Postal Savings Bank. China's foreign exchange reserves have exceeded 1 trillion US dollars, and the country will set up a foreign exchange investment company within 27 years. The previously established Central Huijin Company has injected US$ 4.5 billion into China Construction Bank and China Bank, and the Postal Savings Bank should also apply to the foreign exchange reserve management department for capital injection.
(4) Strengthening the construction of risk prevention mechanism and internal control mechanism.
After the establishment of the Postal Savings Bank, the risks it faces will increase, and risks such as credit risk, operational risk and market risk will affect the normal operation of the Postal Savings Bank. Therefore, in order to ensure the stable operation of the Postal Savings Bank, a sound risk prevention mechanism and internal control mechanism should be established at the beginning of its establishment. Postal Savings Bank can take targeted measures for the construction of risk prevention mechanism: (1) Establish a good risk management culture within the bank. Cultivate the risk awareness of all bank employees, run the risk management thought through every link of bank operation, combine business development with risk management irregularly, and the risk management department and the business development department should communicate in time. (2) Invest in improving the hardware and equipment of banks. At present, many postal savings outlets have security risks, especially in rural areas. Postal savings bank should gradually invest funds to establish a security monitoring system. (3) Establish a vertically independent risk management department. The head office, provincial banks and branches should establish risk management departments and achieve vertical leadership to ensure the independence of risk management departments. (4) Improve the quality of risk management personnel. In the past, postal savings did not pay enough attention to risk management, especially to the control of new credit risks. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the knowledge training of risk management personnel and recruit professional risk management personnel from the society to supplement the risk management team.
Risk prevention mechanism and internal control mechanism are closely linked, and internal control is the key to bank governance. Only by establishing a strict internal control mechanism can we truly resist financial risks. Postal Savings Bank can establish internal control mechanism through the following ways: (1) Establish new standardized and feasible rules and regulations. On the basis of the rules and regulations established in the past, the Postal Savings Bank should re-establish strict rules and regulations according to the Trial Measures for Internal Control Evaluation of Commercial Banks formulated by the CBRC. (2) Establish an effective risk assessment and monitoring system. Track and analyze all kinds of risks that affect the operation of the Postal Savings Bank, and find and resolve risks in time. Use certain risk management techniques to collect business data, establish a suitable risk measurement model, measure risks and provide risk early warning. (3) Authorize all departments of the bank, clarify the rights and responsibilities of each department, prevent the acts of ultra vires operation, especially strengthen the management of bank executives, and put an end to the illegal acts of bank executives. (4) Follow the principles of truthfulness, standardization, prudence and supervision, establish a strict accounting system, conduct accounting supervision, ensure mutual restraint in accounting work, and regularly check various positions and businesses of accounting.
(5) Accelerate personnel training and improve the professional quality of employees.
The quality of postal savings personnel is relatively low, and the lack of financial professional knowledge is a common problem. Therefore, it is urgent to cultivate talents with high professional quality and improve their academic level. To solve this problem, we should first hire staff from commercial banks such as the People's Bank of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission to train postal savers in business and laws and regulations, so that they can master financial business processes, risk prevention methods and marketing knowledge; Secondly, it is necessary to take advantage of the merger of other financial institutions to provide good treatment and absorb personnel from other banks to make up for the shortage of personnel in the Postal Savings Bank; You can also openly recruit college graduates majoring in finance to improve the overall academic level of employees of the Postal Savings Bank.
(6) Develop community finance and form its own characteristics.
In March 2006, Liu, Chairman of China Banking Regulatory Commission, said that postal savings would be transformed into community banks. "Community banks are commercial banks established and operated independently by local governments. They absorb funds from the community they run and use them in the community. They are not affiliated with the bank holding company. Community banks are characterized by private ownership, operating in specific areas, and being small in scale, serving small and medium-sized enterprises and individual customers in specific communities "(Note: Xu Xin. Discrimination of the definition of community banks in China [J]. Journal of shanghai finance university, 26( 1). According to this definition, there are no community banks in China at present. The transformation of Postal Savings Bank into a real community bank first faces the obstacle of legal person structure. Postal savings bank is a national bank, but after it is transformed into a community bank, regional branches and sub-branches should be transformed into independent profit and loss accounting units, and the head office of Postal Savings Bank no longer has the qualification of a first-class legal person. Secondly, after the head office's control over local branches weakened, local branches lacked risk control ability, which was a big hidden danger to the development of China's financial industry. Therefore, the Postal Savings Bank should not take the road of community banks. Community finance is different from the concept of community bank. "Community finance is actually a model for commercial banks to develop retail business, that is, taking a certain community as the center, deepening the retail business of banks to community customers, and then radiating the surrounding areas and people. Community finance helps banks to segment markets, and can concentrate on understanding and analyzing customers in a certain market segment, so as to carry out financial business in a targeted manner. " (Note: Xu Xin. Discrimination of the definition of community banks in China [J]. Journal of shanghai finance university, 26( 1). )
The Postal Savings Bank has two advantages in developing community finance: First, it has a good corporate image. Postal savings rely on debit card "green card" to provide fast and convenient services for residents' deposit and withdrawal, consumption and transfer settlement. Especially in rural areas, many farmers go out to work, and their children give priority to "green cards" when they go to school. Postal savings have gained a good image among residents. Therefore, the Postal Savings Bank should make use of the good image of postal service, establish good relations with community customers, establish customer credit files, provide flexible and convenient financial products, and constantly explore and cultivate new customers. Second, there are many outlets, rural outlets account for a large proportion, and urban outlets go deep into the community. Therefore, we should vigorously develop intermediary business and provide convenient financial services for community residents, such as setting up ATM machines in residential areas. In addition, the Postal Savings Bank should pay attention to the financial needs of small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed individuals in the community and provide short-term financing services for self-employed, farmers and laid-off workers. Because the key targets of the four major state-owned banks are state-owned enterprises, it is difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to get loans. Therefore, the Postal Savings Bank should give full play to its regional advantages, investigate the credit status of small and medium-sized enterprises, meet their loan demand for enterprises with good credit, and use developed exchange settlement services to serve small and medium-sized enterprises and promote community economic development.
In short, if the Postal Savings Bank wants to compete with ICBC, CCB and other commercial banks and rural credit cooperatives, it must survive by differentiation and have a clear market positioning in order to gain a firm foothold.