BBC News Top Stories-Business Zhongzhi Enterprise Group China investigates major shadow bank for crimes
November 27, 2023 3 min 521 words
这则报道揭示了中国重要的影子银行之一，中智企业集团，因涉嫌犯罪而受到官方调查。中智企业集团是房地产企业贷款的主要资金来源，其资产管理部门曾一度管理超过一万亿人民币。报道指出，该集团最近宣布破产，欠债高达640亿美元，资产估值约380亿美元。这引发了对中国经济的进一步担忧，尤其是在房地产巨头恒大债务危机后。中国影子银行业规模达3万亿美元，为房地产提供了重要的融资支持。专家表示，中智集团的问题可能只是更大问题的开端，可能波及其他影子银行和实体银行。中国经济的放缓和房地产危机使得这些问题更加严峻。这一报道揭示了中国金融领域的风险和挑战，对于全球经济也具有潜在的影响。
Chinese officials have launched an investigation into one of the country's biggest shadow banks, which has lent billions to real estate firms.
Zhongzhi Enterprise Group (ZEG) has an asset management arm that at its peak reportedly handled more than a trillion yuan ($139bn; £110bn).
Authorities said they are investigating "suspected illegal crimes" against the firm, in a statement on the weekend.
This comes days after reports that ZEG had declared it was insolvent.
The struggling firm reportedly told investors in a letter last week that its liabilities - up to $64bn - had outstripped its assets, now estimated at about $38bn.
While authorities said they had taken "criminal coercive measures" against "many suspects" it's still unclear who they are, and what role they play in the firm. The company's founder, Xie Zhikun, died of a heart attack in 2021.
ZEG is a major player in China's shadow banking industry, a term for a system of lenders, brokers and other credit intermediaries who fall outside the realm of traditional regulated banking. Shadow banking, which is unregulated, is not subject to the same kinds of risk, liquidity and capital restrictions as traditional banks.
China's shadow banking industry is valued at around $3tn. It often provides a financial lifeline to the country's property sector. The once-booming industry has been hit by a severe credit crunch, with some of the biggest firms now on the brink of financial collapse.
"For several decades China been chasing this property bubble - and in order to create this bubble, or to fuel growth in China, they needed capital. So they started getting a lot of money from individual investors offering very, very high returns. And it worked for quite a while because the property prices were going up and it's a win-win for everybody," says Andrew Collier, a shadow banking expert at Orient Capital Research.
Informal lending has always existed in China's economy, but shadow banking really took off in the aftermath of the global financial crisis in 2008, when credit was scarce.
Given China's slowing economy and the crisis in the real estate sector, Mr Collier says the troubles at ZEG may just be the start of a bigger problem: "This is going to spread further into other forms of shadow banks and potentially into the actual real brick-and-mortar banks."
Embattled property developers currently owe Chinese banks money worth as much as 30% of the banks' assets.
"That is going to take a long time to unwind," Mr Collier says.
The latest developments at ZEG has raised concerns of further turmoil in the world's second-largest economy, after the collapse of property developer Evergrande and more recently the financial woes at Country Garden.
China's property sector makes up a third of its economic output. That includes houses, rental and brokering services, as well as construction materials and industries producing goods that go into apartments.
The latest figures show that China's economy expanded by 4.9% in the three months between July and September. That is slower than the previous quarter, when the economy grew by 6.3%.