The extension policies and service measures of different financial institutions have different emphases
Recently, the epidemic prevention and control has been upgraded in many places. Many wage earners are trapped in their homes and implement home isolation or centralized isolation. Work can be suspended, but housing loans and car loans can’t wait.
A screenshot of “due to the impact of the epidemic, the public asked whether the bank could delay the mortgage” spread on the Internet, which immediately triggered a heated discussion among netizens. “It is necessary to put the mortgage repayment on the agenda due to the epidemic” also appeared on the hot search.
Steady economic growth requires more market players to survive. In recent years, the central and local governments have introduced various effective measures, including tax reduction and fee reduction, to help various market entities tide over difficulties.
However, it should be noted that both market players and social individuals are facing the impact of the epidemic. The plight of nearly exhausted cash flow and the pressure of loan repayment have been felt by many enterprises, as have many citizens.
To achieve steady growth, we must let more market players live, but this alone is obviously not enough. Because the economy is a circular whole, if there is no link and chain, its rotation will not be smooth.
If there are difficulties in the life of many social individuals, they dare not consume under heavy pressure in order to repay the loan, and even need to economize on food and clothing, this negative impact will also be transmitted to the production and supply side.
The control brought about by the epidemic prevention and control may lead to shutdown. On the basis of indirect relief measures, we still need to pay attention to the direct pressure. For most enterprises and citizens, the main source of this pressure is loans.
This is also the main reason why the loan extension is on the hot search.
In fact, these problems have already attracted the attention of relevant departments.
As early as February 2020, the five departments of the people’s Bank of China issued the notice on further strengthening financial support to prevent and control New Coronavirus’s epidemic of pneumonia. It was clearly stated that people who were hospitalized or isolated from COVID-19 pneumonia, need to isolate Chinese observers, participate in epidemic prevention and control work, and temporarily lose their income sources by epidemic prevention and control. Financial institutions should give appropriate preference to credit policies, flexibly adjust the repayment arrangements of personal credit such as housing mortgage and credit card, and reasonably postpone the repayment period.
Just in April this year, in view of the spread of the epidemic, especially the great repayment pressure on residents in high-risk areas, Industrial And Commercial Bank Of China Limited(601398) , Agricultural Bank Of China Limited(601288) , Bank Of China Limited(601988) , China Construction Bank Corporation(601939) , Bank Of Communications Co.Ltd(601328) , postal savings bank said that they were affected by the epidemic, Customers who meet the conditions (including those who are hospitalized or isolated due to covid-19 pneumonia, need isolation and observation for epidemic prevention and control, participate in epidemic prevention and control, and temporarily lose their source of income affected by the epidemic) can apply for mortgage deferred repayment, and have issued corresponding policies.
The extension policies and service measures of different financial institutions have different emphases. For example, Postal Savings Bank Of China Co.Ltd(601658) said that it would provide deferred repayment services for qualified customers for up to 6 months, with the longest extension time, while Bank Of China Limited(601988) specially issued a package of personal housing loan guarantee policies including extending the loan term, delaying the repayment of principal and interest and setting a preferential repayment period.
But no matter what kind of measures, as long as they are conducive to easing the pressure of residents to repay the loan, they are beneficial. In addition, specific to the implementation, we should also consider whether there is any distortion and deformation of policy implementation. Recently, some netizens reported that after the loan was delayed, the total repayment interest of a certain bank would increase by tens of thousands of yuan. If the situation reflected by netizens is true, such an extension obviously loses the original meaning of emergency and relief.
Delayed repayment of loans may also have a certain impact on bank liquidity. Therefore, when implementing the loan extension policy, it is necessary to accurately calculate the number of people affected and the total amount, and then strengthen liquidity management on this basis to avoid liquidity risk.
(the author is a special commentator)
