China’s money market has developed to a certain extent since the reform and opening up. Currently, there are four types of money market family: interbank lending market, short-term lending market (essentially short-term credit lending), bill market and certificate of deposit market. But generally speaking, compared with the development speed of the capital market, especially compared with the money market tools, money market operating mechanisms and disciplines required by the central bank to carry out open market operations and rediscount policy operations, the development of China's money market has It is still too slow, and people’s understanding and enthusiasm for developing the currency market is far less than that of developing the capital market. Therefore, it is undoubtedly of great significance to correctly understand the status and role of the currency market in China's economic development, analyze the current situation and problems of the operation of China's currency market, and explore how to promote its rapid and healthy development through policies.
1. The current situation and problems of my country’s money market
The initial motivation for the creation of China’s money market was to adjust the surplus and shortage of monetary funds caused by temporary and regional factors to offset the conditions. The irrationality of the size of credit allocated in blocks. After these years of development, although a pattern of collecting and distributing short-term monetary funds based on central cities has been initially formed, overall, the current money market still shows obvious flaws:
1. The market shape is monotonous, and the "position" market is in name only. At present, the active part of the domestic money market is essentially only interbank lending. Other money markets, such as the bill market and the large negotiable certificate of deposit market, have just started, and the market role is very weak. As an advanced form of commercial credit activities, the bill market is a very active market form in the currency markets of developed countries. However, the development level of the domestic bill market is extremely low. According to relevant information, by the end of 1991, the total scale of domestic commercial credit was more than 280 billion yuan, of which commercial credit in the form of commercial bills accounted for only 30%, and the other 70% of commercial credit appeared in the form of "hanging accounts" , there is no legal restriction, so once money tightens, "triangular debt" in economic activities will emerge and become increasingly serious. This has a lot to do with the fact that there is still no institution in mainland China that specializes in bill discounting and transfer, and reasonable bills lack the necessary security and liquidity. Not only has the Negotiable Instruments Law not been promulgated, the power of negotiable instruments cannot be guaranteed, but the assessment system for qualified negotiable instruments has not yet been established, and instruments cannot be exchanged and circulated.
Looking at the large-amount transferable certificates of deposit market, in 1992 the five largest banks, namely Industry, Agriculture, China, Construction, and Communications, issued large-amount transferable certificates of deposit worth 42.7 billion yuan to raise short-term funds and improve the plays a very minor role in the structure of bank liabilities. In some countries with developed money markets, such as the United States, the outstanding amount of large bank negotiable certificates of deposit reached US$410 billion at the end of 1984, accounting for approximately 15% of the total liabilities of its commercial banks. Moreover, the vast majority of large-amount transferable deposit certificates in mainland China are currently registered and non-redeemable. The name "transferable deposit certificate" is actually difficult to circulate, which is not conducive to the adjustment of the investment structure by the holder; the interest rate of the deposit certificate is basically the same as the deposit interest rate of the same period. , lack of elasticity, and thus the interest rate mechanism that reflects the currency supply and demand situation through the certificate of deposit market failed to form.
From the perspective of the short-term treasury bond market, the treasury bond market is the most active market in the Western developed currency markets and is the main place where the central bank conducts open market operations. However, in our country, on the one hand, the overall scale of treasury bonds is small. From 1981 to 1994, a total of 261.5 billion yuan in treasury bills were issued. At the end of 1993, the amount of treasury bills was only 92 billion yuan, accounting for about 3.5% of personal financial assets. The central bank lacks a material basis for open market operations. ; On the other hand, due to the single maturity of treasury bonds, generally 3 to 5 years, short-term treasury bonds with a maturity of less than 1 year have not yet been launched. In addition, the trading activities of medium-term treasury bonds are mainly conducted among various securities firms, and the central bank has not been able to participate. It has an obvious self-circulating nature. Therefore, the treasury bill market, as an important form of the money market, has not played its due role either in the government's short-term financing management or as a means for the central bank to participate in the operation of the money market.
From the perspective of the interbank lending market, although interbank lending has developed rapidly in my country and has become the main body of the money market, while affirming the achievements, it should be clearly noted that this market has not developed normally as expected. . Originally, the People's Bank of China stipulated that interbank lending should adhere to the principle of short-term financing, with a maximum period of no more than four months. Long-term loans must be secured by commercial bills. However, the actual implementation results show that the loan period of most financial institutions is too long, with the longest period being as high as 3 years. Judging from the investment direction of the borrowed funds, most of the part that flows to trust companies, securities companies and other non-bank financial institutions is used to buy shares, invest, and make up for the gap in fixed assets and bonds; the part that flows to banks is not for the purpose of borrowing. Make up for the lack of deposit reserves, because some banks borrow funds despite having excess reserves. The purpose of borrowing funds is to wholesale them to enterprises for use as loans. As a business loan, it does not need to be short-term, but long-term, and the longer the better. It can be seen that interbank lending between domestic banks has had a strong "wholesale loan" character since its inception. Financial institutions have demolished one thing to make up for the other, mostly to solve the problem of insufficient corporate liquidity or fixed asset investment gaps.
2. The market is fragmented and closed, and no unified national market has been formed.
One of the manifestations is the loose and regional nature of the interbank lending market. On the one hand, the vast majority of interbank lending transactions in mainland China are conducted in the invisible market, that is, direct counterparty transactions through mutual connections between financial institutions, thus restricting the functioning of the unified market. The so-called "national financial market quotation information" The "trading system" is in name only, which objectively makes it difficult to play the role of the "national inter-bank lending market center".
On the other hand, there is serious localism in various places. Only lending is allowed, but lending is not allowed. To a large extent, things are done by the will of the governor without considering the efficiency of the use of funds. As a result, horizontal financing such as inter-bank lending has become The method has been twisted into a tool for fund allocation in this region and this system. The second manifestation is that there are obvious differences in lending rates. Excluding the "underground contract interest rate" of more than 25% of borrowing funds, and only analyzing the interest rates published by the lending markets in some provinces and cities, the 7-day average interest rate from May 11 to 20, 1993 was 7.393‰, and the average deviation 0.581, of which the difference between the highest interest rate and the lowest interest rate is 4.89 thousand points; the 2-month average interest rate is 11.334‰, and the average dispersion is 2.223, of which the difference between the highest interest rate and the lowest interest rate is 7.61 thousand points, and the difference between high and low counties is 1.2 times Above; the average interest rate from March to April is 13.105‰, and the average dispersion is 1.596. The difference between the highest interest rate and the lowest interest rate reaches 5.606 thousand points, which fully reflects the segmentation of China's lending market activities.
The third manifestation is that interbank lending and other currency markets have not formed an interconnected and organically functioning whole. In developed money markets, money market instruments are obviously substitutable. Market participants closely link various sub-markets through the purchase and sale of various short-term financial products, especially the central bank, which serves as the ultimate regulator of the supply and demand for funds in the money market. It plays a huge role in coordinating the connections between various sub-markets and strengthens the integrated operation function of the currency market. Obviously, each currency submarket has failed to develop to this level and is still in a state of fragmentation and looseness.
3. The incompleteness of market activity entities and irregular behavior of participants. When examining the money market in Western countries, its main participants include: (1) commercial banks, which are the most important participants in the money market; (2) the central bank, the ultimate regulator of the supply and demand of monetary funds; (3) the Ministry of Finance, which often The issuance of treasury bills in the money market is used to make up for the gap caused by the time difference between fiscal revenue and expenditure and the gap caused by expenditure exceeding revenue; (4) securities dealers, whose biggest economic function is to act as a trading intermediary for various short-term financial products, and through most of the existing Active positions on issued bonds with predetermined repayment periods "create markets" for various bonds; (5) Enterprises, the largest suppliers of commercial bills and demanders of various securities. The diverse currency market participants and their different economic functions lay the foundation for the formation and organic operation of the currency market.
On the one hand, the main actors of money market activities show incomplete characteristics: First, in the lending market, the active entities are several major professional banks, among which the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is the main one. Therefore, the lending activities appear to be irregular within the system. self-circulating, while other active entities such as trust companies, securities companies and other non-bank financial institutions are basically excluded from this market, and their short-term financing activities can only be carried out in disguised and non-standard ways; secondly, the Ministry of Finance has not To become a supplier of short-term financial instruments, the regular issuance system of short-term treasury bills has not been established; third, there is a shortage of traders in the money market. At present, the traders in the tangible lending market are mainly financing intermediaries organized by the People's Bank of China. The fund cannot play the role of creating and activating the money market; fourth, the identity of the central bank as the ultimate regulator of the supply and demand of funds in the money market has not yet been established; fifth, due to the indifference of enterprises to liquidity management, it is used as a short-term financial product. Supply and demand dynamics are insufficient. On the other hand, the financing behavior of market participants has obvious irregularities. Generally, one of the main differences between the money market and the capital market is that the capital market is a mechanism for financing medium and long-term funds for investment activities, while one of the basic functions of the money market is to provide liquidity management facilities for banks, enterprises, governments and household economic units. . For a long time, due to the short supply of funds in our country, this contradiction has led to the deformation of the basic economic functions of the money market, and many irregularities in money market financing. First, a large amount of funds have been loaned to non-bank financial institutions. According to surveys, non-bank financial institutions The main objects of divestment are some illegal financial companies (of course, such companies are recognized by local governments). Most of these funds are used to evade credit scale monitoring or to meet the funding needs of certain local construction projects; secondly, in the market In addition to interest and service fees, handling fees are also charged during the activities, with the charging ratio ranging from 1‰ to 8‰; third, in some areas, a large amount of funds for the purchase and sale of agricultural and sideline products have even entered the lending market, and professional banks have turned to The People's Bank of China applies for short-term loans; fourth, some grassroots People's Banks will re-loan or borrow funds to other non-bank financial institutions and even disguised loans to industrial and commercial enterprises through specialized banks and urban credit cooperatives, causing and encouraging non-bank financial institutions. The overload operation also evaded scale control.
4. The non-bond nature of market instruments and the inelasticity of market interest rates.
The instruments in developed money markets mainly include treasury bills (TB), negotiable certificates of deposit (CD), commercial paper (CP), bank acceptance bills (BA), promissory notes for lending transactions, repurchase agreement securities (RP), etc. The effective operation of various market instruments for billing and securitization not only connects various currency sub-markets into an organic whole, but also provides liquidity management convenience for banks, enterprises, governments and household economic units. The more important content is Provides an alternative means of regulating the amount of money and credit for the central bank's open market operations (also for relending and rediscounting operations).
First, China’s money market instruments exhibit non-bill characteristics. For example, position buying and selling in the interbank lending market, whether it is an intermediary transaction in the tangible market or a counterparty transaction in the intangible market, all use the borrowing establishment of bank loans. The payment is delivered according to the procedures, but in the case of position transactions, the IOU issued by the borrower must be signed and notarized by the financing center as the broker, and the rest is a real financial enterprise that is different from the bank that issues loans and independently bears operating risks;
The second is to establish a risk compensation and hedging mechanism in the financial industry. To this end, bank asset-liability ratio management methods should be implemented to keep the bank's assets and liabilities in terms of quantity, term and interest rate sensitivity. A reasonable structure to ensure the maximization of profit targets under tolerable risk conditions, thereby increasing the motivation for banks to enter the money market;
The third is to change the central bank’s capital supply system for commercial banks and enhance commercial The motivation of banks to innovate financial instruments for financing causes commercial banks to adjust their positions and change the secondary reserve structure mainly through money market activities, while the central bank regulates money market activities as the ultimate regulator, thereby affecting business Banks' excess reserves and their cost levels;
The fourth is to establish a competition mechanism for financial professionals, implement the "access" and "access" principles of the financial industry, and allow various forms and functions of intermediaries In the establishment of institutions, special attention should be paid to the development of local joint-stock commercial banks to break the monopoly operation of credit funds in a situation where multiple financial institutions compete with each other;
The fifth is to establish variable and structural The interest rate system should gradually liberalize interest rates so that the interest rate level can reflect the supply and demand relationship of funds in the market. (3) Carry out fiscal and financial system reform. It is necessary to learn from the experience of fiscal financing in developed countries, promote the bondization of my country's fiscal deficit financing, establish a regular issuance system of short-term treasury bonds, and issue short-term treasury bills with a term of 3 months, 6 months, 9 months and 1 year to make up for fiscal revenue and expenditure. monthly and seasonal imbalances, and improve the term structure of existing government bonds, thus pushing the government fiscal department to the status of the main body of money market activities.
2. Construct an effective operating mechanism for the currency market. It is necessary to construct a money market operating mechanism with short-term capital companies as the main transaction intermediary, and cultivate direct targets for the central bank's open market operations (including rediscounting or re-lending). This idea includes two basic contents. The first is to establish a short-term financing center at the head office of the People's Bank of China to build a large-capacity, high-efficiency national short-term financing company and become a direct "sensor" for the central bank's monetary policy operations. The second is to transform the tangible capital markets in Shenyang, Tianjin, Shanghai, Wuhan, Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou and other places into regional short-term financing companies. These short-term financing companies and the central financing center together form a unified money market center. A source of information on the network of trading activities and money market capital supply and demand, as well as a transmission intermediary for the central bank's monetary policy operations.
As a broker in the money market, the above-mentioned short-term financing company’s business should be expanded from the existing fund lending intermediary business to the issuance and trading of short-term treasury bills, the discounting and trading of various bills, and The central bank should allocate a special amount of funds to these companies, and these brokers should absorb member funds to form a money market stabilization fund to conduct self-operated trading of short-term financial products. , "create" markets for the trading of various short-term financial instruments. These short-term capital companies trade various short-term financial products through intermediaries, linking the activities of banks, enterprises, and government departments. The central bank uses short-term capital companies to buy and sell various bonds and bills, and absorb base currency to influence the activities of commercial banks. Excess reserves and the behavior of other currency market participants achieve the purpose of regulating market currency supply and demand.
3. Cultivate a guarantee mechanism for the effective operation of the money market. That is, by formulating a series of laws and systems to ensure the standardization of currency market behavior.
The key points are:
(1) Improve the securities credit rating system, and have authoritative corporate credit rating agencies rate existing companies. Only companies with A-level qualifications are eligible to issue commercial paper;
(2) Formulate the Negotiable Instrument Law in line with international practice to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties to the instrument in accordance with the law. This is an important guarantee for the standardization of instrument behavior;
(3) In addition to the enacted In addition to the "Central Bank Law", a series of strict regulations such as the "Commercial Bank Law" and the "Financial Company Law" should also be expedited to determine the relationship between the central bank and commercial banks and other financial institutions, and to establish the behavior of various financial activity entities. Code;
(4) Formulate a "Settlement Law" to standardize settlement behavior and strictly enforce settlement disciplines;
(5) Consider establishing a special court system for financial business and equip it with specialized legal talents , to make reasonable and fair decisions on disputes and illegal behaviors in financial management, control and financial transactions. This system has successful experience in many countries and can be used for reference.
In short, the development and smooth operation of China's currency market can only be achieved under the protection of various laws and regulations related to it, and its functions and roles can be exerted normally.