"The car loan market in the Pearl River Delta has been damaged, and some banks are withdrawing." A source from a first-level branch of a state-owned bank in Shenzhen revealed.
Relevant investigators found that due to the high rebate costs, many grassroots bank branches in the Pearl River Delta were overwhelmed and quietly withdrew from the credit card installment and car loan market. Recently, the Guangdong Bankers Association has issued a document to various banks, requiring them to sign an agreement and not to obtain car mortgage loan business from car dealers through various types of commissions.
Currently in the Shenzhen market, bank account managers who develop car loan installment business need to give 4S store rebates that generally reach 6‰, and the highest even reaches 12‰. In addition to the cost of account manager manpower and other costs, the rebate for developing car loan installment business is generally 6‰. The cost of a credit card installment car loan is higher than the performance rewards given by higher-level branches.
The fiercely competitive car loan market
The car loan business, which was once promoted by various banks, is experiencing cold treatment at the grassroots level of some banks. It is reported that car loans mainly include two major businesses within banks, one is traditional car loan mortgages, and the other is credit card installment loans that have just emerged in the past few years. The person in charge of the personal loan department of a Guangdong branch of a state-owned bank said that because traditional car loan mortgage business requires dealers to provide guarantees and the introduction of guarantee companies, the procedures are cumbersome and the approval cycle is long, so banks have long stopped doing it. In comparison, although the handling fees for credit card installment loans are higher than those of traditional car loans, they are relatively flexible. As major banks successively launch more favorable credit card installment car purchases, they will gradually replace the traditional car loan business. It is the mainstream car loan method currently on the market.
Relevant investigators visited many banks in the market and found that banks currently offer credit card installment loans in an interest-free but fee-based manner. The current one-year handling fee of the five major banks of China Construction Bank and China Merchants Bank is about 3.9%-5.5% of the loan amount, while the longest three-year term is about 10%-14.5%. In addition, when cooperating with different car manufacturers, manufacturers may provide certain interest subsidies for promotion.
"For banks, this was originally a business with good income, but now that the market has hidden rules, bank profits have become thinner, and some banks have even suffered losses." A personal loan department of a joint-stock bank in Guangzhou People said this when talking about the car loan business. The "hidden rules" he refers to are the rebates that bank account managers need to give to 4S stores. The aforementioned relevant person from the first-level branch of a state-owned bank in Shenzhen revealed that the amount of rebates given by account managers to 4S stores depends on the bargaining power of each branch. According to his understanding, in a certain district of Shenzhen where he is located, the current lowest is 2‰, the common rate is 6‰, and the highest has even reached 12‰. At present, the rebate amount has formed a price war in the market, and even different branches of the same bank have started internal price wars in order to compete for cooperation with 4S stores.
In fact, the amount of rebate has become the main criterion for 4S stores to choose which bank to cooperate with. A 4S dealer in Foshan said that when choosing a cooperative bank, the main factor is how much rebate the bank can give 4S points.
Rebates erode bank performance rewards
The above-mentioned 4S store dealers said that banks were the first market entities to start car loan services, but subsequently each brand manufacturer established its own For financial services companies, dealers will leave most of their business to manufacturers, which are financial consumer companies. Currently, manufacturer mortgage loan business accounts for more than 80% of the overall business. Therefore, although the auto mortgage market is showing overall growth, competition among banks is becoming increasingly fierce.
It is under this circumstance that various banks have no choice but to offer higher commissions in order to enter the business channels of 4S stores. For banks, the rebates given increase the bank's marketing costs for the car loan business. For some grassroots branches, the marketing costs have exceeded the performance contribution of the car loan business to the grassroots branches.
The aforementioned relevant person from the first-level branch of a state-owned bank in Shenzhen did some calculations. Based on the current one-year car loan handling fee of a bank of 4%, if it wants to do a business of 25 million yuan, the bank can get 1 million yuan. The intermediary business income is RMB 230,000. Assuming that this part of the business is incremental business, a first-level branch can receive a performance reward of about RMB 230,000 from the superior branch through multiple performance appraisals.
Based on a rebate of 6‰, a rebate of 150,000 yuan needs to be given to the 4S store. "Before this, the bank's field customers basically only did car loan business, and with labor costs, the bank was actually doing a loss-making business." The relevant person in charge revealed that his branch has chosen to actually suspend this business since the second half of the year. business.
Guangdong has initiated industry self-regulation
“In areas where bank competition is sufficient, competition in the car loan business has indeed become fierce. Under the unspoken rules of the industry, bank costs are very high, and some banks are indeed withdrawing. "The person in charge of the personal loan department of a state-owned bank revealed that in fact, relevant departments have noticed that the hidden rules of the car loan market have caused competition problems in the development of the industry, and hope to solve this problem through industry self-regulation.
Relevant investigators learned that not long ago, the Guangdong Banking Association issued a convention on car loans to member units specifically regarding the issue of car loan rebates. Relevant investigators obtained the above-mentioned conventions from the industry and showed that the current commissions provided by banks to dealers include banks and their employees obtaining car mortgage loan business from car dealers by paying cash, providing physical goods or providing labor services as consideration, among which This includes the payment of commissions to car dealers or their employees in the form of cash, transfer or shopping cards (vouchers), stored value cards (vouchers), etc.
"This situation actually occurred when the second-hand housing loan market was just emerging, and was later resolved through a convention." said the person in charge of the above-mentioned personal loan department. However, some market participants believe that the hidden rules of rebates are the result of market competition. It is difficult for the convention to solve the problem in a practical way, and rebates will only be collected in more covert ways.