In mid-March, three workplaces of Suzhou electric sales giant Chinese enterprise Qixiang in Suzhou and Wuxi were suddenly seized by the police, and hundreds of people were taken away by the Shanghai police for investigation. Subsequently, news came out in Chengdu, Nanjing and other places that loan intermediaries and loan-assisting companies were seized by the police.Multi-site supervision has intensified the crackdown on illegal institutions.
The loan intermediary does not lend directly to the borrower as a funder, but introduces the products of formal financial institutions to the borrower as an intermediary. The reason why it is "deeply hated" is related to a series of illegal acts such as some institutions illegally obtaining personal information for SMS and telephone harassment, impersonating bank staff, forging false information to obtain bank loans, charging high service fees and even beheading.
Telemarketing is widely used by most loan intermediaries, which are also directly called telemarketing companies. Even in recent years, a large number of telemarketing companies have gathered in an office building in many cities, and it has also happened from time to time that one company has been closed down and another company has moved in.
How do sales companies develop their industries? Why is it still "repeatedly banned" under severe blows? Are loan intermediaries all as "heinous" as stereotype? 21st century business herald reporter tried to present the industry situation and business model of loan intermediaries such as telemarketing companies from multiple perspectives through interviews with practitioners, legal persons and people in related industries.
Through interviews, we found that behind the current "chaos", we need to pay more attention to the norms of industry order. As a product of market development, loan intermediaries also reveal from the side that the problem of small and micro enterprises’ loan difficulty still needs to be solved urgently.
Liu shui de Dian Xiao company
Some netizens commented on social media, "There is a telemarketing company downstairs in our company, which is arrested every year and then rented to other telemarketing companies. Mainly a flowing electric sales company, the same electric sales. " In fact, this situation has begun to become common, and office buildings gathered by such sales companies have also appeared in many cities.
Take Suzhou as an example. Before that, many telemarketing companies set up their offices in industrial parks, and several office buildings became famous "financial buildings" in the industry because of the large number of rented telemarketing companies. After the industrial park began to clear the loan intermediary, some companies moved to gusu district and Xiangcheng, and the "financial building" also moved. A person familiar with the matter told reporters that "there are many loan companies in one building" in an office building in gusu district. These telemarketing companies that can still stay in Suzhou after being retired are regarded as "financially strong", and more "without strength" can only choose to move to other places or directly withdraw.
The same thing happened in Jinan. Two office buildings in High-tech Zone are dubbed by people who work nearby, and the high degree of gathering of their telemarketing companies is described as "Altman has to make two phone calls to leave when he comes". A person who works in one of the buildings told the reporter, "The relatively strong companies here are insurance, banks and other big companies, and the others have always been flowing companies." Judging from the property conditions, one of the two office buildings is located in a high-end CBD, which is known as the local financial and business gathering area; The other office environment is poor and the rent is relatively low. Under the change of "flowing companies" round after round, a large number of telemarketing companies have appeared in both places.
A person engaged in office rental in Suzhou told reporters that the "financial" companies such as electricity sales and loan assistance accounted for one-third of its customers last year. "On average, more than 10 loan assistance companies can find venues every month, and more than 100 loan assistance companies can be received every year." However, the lease time of these companies is not long. "The lease period is basically three months, and those who do not withdraw for three months are very powerful."
The above-mentioned person said that several districts in Suzhou had cleaned up the loan intermediary companies before, and at the same time, the property owners of some office buildings began to stop renting out the venues to such companies, because the gathering of electricity sales companies would mostly bring higher alarm rate to office buildings.
"Not bad money" property can refuse to settle in the electricity sales company,However, for the property owners who have great pressure on their own profits, such companies are at least lessees with good ability to pay.. Therefore, it often happens in many office buildings that a loan intermediary company moves away or is sealed up by the police, and a new loan intermediary company will move in after the clearance.
Enterprise loans become "pillar business"
In the usual impression, the business of this kind of telemarketing intermediary is often mainly aimed at personal loans. However, the reporter found in the interview that corporate loans with higher profits have become the "pillar business" of many telemarketing companies.
Suzhou Zhongqi Qixiang, which was previously seized by the police, is one of the most influential enterprises in the local enterprise loan industry. A person familiar with the matter told reporters that many people engaged in corporate loan business in Suzhou are from Chinese enterprises, and "basic executives are opening branches outside".
Different from the early "extensive operation", such sales companies have formed a relatively perfect business process.
As an intermediary, a telemarketing company provides loan intermediation services to customers, and usually signs an intermediary service agreement with customers to clarify the handling fee and related terms. The intermediary services it actually provides, besides recommending loan products from formal financial institutions that match customers’ needs, may also include preparing or "manufacturing" relevant loan materials for customers whose procedures are unclear or even unqualified.
The business of this kind of loan intermediary usually begins with telephone sales by telephone operators. Under normal circumstances, the operator is only responsible for making phone calls, and when the customer handles business on the spot, the negotiator will communicate with the customer in detail. Among them,The usual methods used by some loan intermediaries include impersonating bank employees and defrauding customers’ trust through friends circle packaging.
After being suppressed by negotiators, such as "poor credit reporting" and "loan with high interest", many customers may accept their higher handling fees. An employee who worked in a Chinese enterprise, Qixiang, told reporters that the service fee of this company usually starts at three points. "But sometimes the negotiators talk high, and they can go up to 10 points, and there is a loan of 3 million to collect 600,000 service fees."Based on this calculation, the service fee can even be as high as 20% of the loan amount.
Under the high profit, the job advertisements posted by the telemarketing company also look "excellent". The reporter searched for keywords such as "telemarketing" on a recruitment website. The minimum monthly salary of many related positions in Suzhou and Jinan is also more than 10,000 yuan, and some positions are marked as "irresponsible basic salary 7500", "team manager is stable 2W+" and "enterprise loan telemarketing is 46,000 yuan per month". A person familiar with the matter told reporters,"The operator is only the bottom of the loan intermediary company, and the negotiators are basically the bosses or executives of the company, and the salary is also high. Before, a company recruited negotiators with a monthly salary of100,000 yuan, in addition to a commission. "
Fuzzy compliance boundary
Are loan intermediaries all as "heinous" as stereotype? Is the business completely illegal? In the interview, we found that there is no relevant standard for loan intermediary business, and the boundary between compliance and non-compliance is also very vague.
First of all, it needs to be clarified that loan intermediaries may not be directly defined as illegal. Many industries have produced the profession of intermediary in the process of development. All kinds of intermediaries are essentially businesses that make money by poor information. Loan intermediaries should have shortened the distance between loan customers and financial institutions by virtue of their familiarity with various products.
However, as many people who have been or are engaged in this industry have said, loan intermediaries have been "bad money drives out good money" and stigmatized. The ubiquitous high handling fees have caused many people to equate loan intermediaries with usury and beheading, and the living space of companies with relatively reasonable fees and relatively "disciplined" business has also been continuously squeezed.
However, it is also difficult to supervise the loan intermediary industry because the boundary between its business compliance and illegality is actually very vague. The reporter interviewed a number of practitioners, legal persons and people in related industries, and it is difficult to make a relatively clear judgment on the boundaries.
What business can a loan intermediary provide? Can the high agency fee match the service it provides? Judging from the current situation, this may only depend on market competition and mutual benchmarking between companies. The above-mentioned insiders gave an example to reporters.The intermediary service fees of such companies in Suzhou can reach 18 points or even higher, while those in Nanjing generally will not exceed 15 points. "The high point can’t survive in Nanjing, and it is easy to be spurned by the local market."
In addition to charging high service fees or even beheading interest, some loan intermediaries also illegally obtain personal information for text messages and telephone harassment, and impersonate regular institutions and bank staff to defraud customers’ trust. In the process of business handling, some companies engaged in enterprise loan business can also help enterprises forge false information and eliminate bad records.
A lawyer in Suzhou analyzed a reporter’s case in which he participated. The client wanted to apply for a five-year loan of 3 million yuan, signed a contract with a loan intermediary and was charged an intermediary fee of 270,000 yuan. During this period, the intermediary staff made up the identity of the bank staff, and the actual lending rate and loan term were inconsistent with the intermediary’s statement, which had already involved fraud. In the actual handling of the case, due to the existence of the intermediary contract, the court generally does not treat it as fraud, but it will not support such a high intermediary fee, and proposes to mediate by partially refunding the fee.
A similar situation occurred in another incident reported by 21st century business herald before, and the court only supported a small part of the high service fee in the judgment. A loan intermediary company in Hangzhou sued several customers in succession because they refused to pay tens of thousands of high service fees. In the case that the loan business actually fails to be successfully handled, the court will generally reject the claim of tens of thousands of yuan service fee advocated by the loan intermediary; In the case that the loan business has been successfully handled and the defendant refuses to pay the service fee, the court only supports the amount of several hundred to several thousand yuan according to the contract and relevant laws and regulations, not tens of thousands of yuan advocated by the loan intermediary company.
Many interviewees mentioned that it is more important to pay attention to the establishment of industry order behind the current "chaos", which includes the scope and pricing of so-called intermediary services. A lawyer in Suzhou believes that the intermediary company itself is necessary, but it must be supervised and operated legally and in compliance. At present, loan intermediaries are facing the problems of no official positioning and lack of relevant industry norms.
Small and micro financing still needs support.
It is also noteworthy that small and micro enterprises have become "frequent customers" of loan intermediaries, which also reflects the current situation that their loan needs may still not be met at the moment when they are widely called to help small and micro enterprises and inclusive finance.
The loan interest rate is superimposed with a high service fee, and the cost of using funds is so high. Why are there still enterprises that can accept it? A lawyer handling related cases in Shanghai mentioned in an interview that some small and micro enterprises really need a working capital but have nowhere to borrow. In addition, a large number of small and micro enterprises with poor qualifications are "excluded" from traditional credit services. In order to obtain loans from formal institutions, they have to rely on services such as "making materials" from loan intermediaries.
Under the traditional credit model, the bank’s borrowing cost is low, but the qualification examination is more strict. When the economy is improving, corporate credit scores, running water and other qualifications are also good, and it is easier to borrow money from banks. When the economic growth slows down, the qualifications of enterprises may decline to some extent, and may even involve litigation, so it is difficult to meet the loan requirements of banks, and banks may be "rejected". Banks may also face the problem of pressure on asset quality, and pay more attention to and prevent risks. This also brings new problems, and some enterprises that need funds may actually not be able to borrow money.
To solve the problem of "financing difficulties" for small and micro enterprises, the optimization direction of current supervision concerns includes the determination of bank loan interest rate for small and micro enterprises, the optimization of credit policy, and the improvement and sharing of credit data for small and micro enterprises.
On April 10th, the the State Council policy briefing once again mentioned the promotion of financing for small and micro enterprises. The State Administration of Financial Supervision said that it will guide banks to reasonably determine the interest rate of inclusive small and micro enterprises’ loans, revise the supervision and evaluation system of financial services for small and micro enterprises in commercial banks and the risk classification method for small and micro enterprises’ loans, and optimize the due diligence exemption system for small and micro enterprises’ credit granting. The National Development and Reform Commission referred to the recently issued Implementation Plan for Overall Financing Credit Service Platform Construction to Improve the Financing Convenience Level of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, insisted on building a inclusive finance service system based on credit information, and promoted the provision of high-quality financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises.