Problems faced by small and medium-sized commercial banks

1, market positioning problem-the convergence of market positioning may lead small and medium-sized commercial banks to a dead end.

At present, most small and medium-sized commercial banks in China adopt the following market positioning strategies. From the perspective of regional positioning, it is generally located in central cities and economically developed areas; From the perspective of product positioning, small and medium-sized commercial banks basically operate whatever the four wholly state-owned commercial banks operate; From the perspective of customer orientation, most of them focus on "two links and two highs" (transportation, communication, universities, high-tech, listed companies and quasi-listed companies), and the assimilation trend is obvious. Relatively speaking, small and medium-sized commercial banks have clear property rights and flexible operation, but the four wholly state-owned commercial banks have strong network system, relatively perfect liquidation system and strong national credit support. So the advantages and disadvantages of both sides are different. Because small and medium-sized commercial banks insist on following the strategy and have no own business characteristics, so far, no matter from the perspective of region, products or even single business, they can't break the monopoly pattern of the four wholly state-owned commercial banks, nor highlight their own development characteristics. Only China Merchants Bank's "one card" business seems to be able to compete with wholly state-owned commercial banks. Especially in recent years, wholly state-owned commercial banks have accelerated the pace of reform and transformation, shifting the focus of business development to central cities, making it more difficult for small and medium-sized commercial banks to develop their business. The current situation has something to do with the fact that the market positioning of small and medium-sized commercial banks is too similar to that of wholly state-owned commercial banks, and they have not determined their own development direction according to their own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, this situation of simply blindly following the "boss" without studying its own characteristics will inevitably lead small and medium-sized commercial banks into a dead end of development.

2. Competitors-The biggest impact on small and medium-sized commercial banks is not foreign banks, but wholly state-owned commercial banks.

Wholly state-owned commercial banks have the unique advantages of localized operation, high popularity and credibility, and have a social background familiar with China's policies, history, folk customs, humanities and environment; Established a relatively stable customer base and a relatively complete local and foreign currency settlement system covering the whole country; There are considerable business outlets and service networks and rich social resources throughout the country; There are huge bank employees with different knowledge levels, different majors and different ages who are suitable for different positions. Especially in recent years, wholly state-owned commercial banks have actively changed to commercialization, the pace of personnel, employment mechanism and distribution system reform has been further accelerated, management ability has been improved day by day, and government intervention has been reduced day by day. More importantly, a series of preferential policies issued by the government, such as stripping off a large number of non-performing loans, writing off a large number of bad loans, and reducing staff, have gradually reduced the burden on state-owned commercial banks and significantly enhanced their competitiveness. They are the "Four Lions" assigned from a deep sleep. Therefore, after China's entry into WTO, the main competitors of small and medium-sized commercial banks are not foreign banks, but wholly state-owned commercial banks.

3. Talent system-The employment system is a repair and improvement of the traditional system of wholly state-owned commercial banks, and the flexible employment mechanism is still out of reach.

First of all, from the "entrance" link. In recent years, small and medium-sized commercial banks have shown more and more "kitsch" tendencies, and they have not introduced high-level talents with high salaries and high treatment. At present, the team situation of small and medium-sized commercial banks can be summarized as "three more and three less": (1) Many people know the traditional banking business, but few people know the modern commercial banking business; (2) There are many skilled operators and few experts and scholars. (3) There are many people who know business operations in management positions, but few who are good at management. At present, small and medium-sized commercial banks mainly rely on middle-level talents to compete for the "world", because those who have the ability are unwilling to come and those who have no ability are afraid to come.

Secondly, from the perspective of "educating people". At present, small and medium-sized commercial banks lack the awareness and methods to establish a training system, so they show various worrying phenomena of putting the cart before the horse in training. (1) pays more attention to the cultivation of knowledge and skills than to the cultivation of mentality and concepts. Although some small and medium-sized commercial banks have made great progress in knowledge supplement and skill training, they still lack due attention to psychological education that directly affects employees' work motivation, such as lack of systematic education on professionalism, creativity, responsibility, mission, new concepts and new concept awareness, and low education level; (2) Pay more attention to short-term efficiency than long-term benefits in understanding the training results. Some small and medium-sized commercial banks are used to thinking about training in real time, lacking systematic research on personnel training and respect and patience for medium and long-term training.

Third, from the "employing people" link. Essentially, it is the same as a wholly state-owned commercial bank. Neither the appointment nor the appointment of cadres has solved the core problem of the cadre system. The key point is that the current way of appointing and removing cadres leads to the lack of binding force of governors at all levels on deputies at the same level, and the governors have no right to choose the use of deputies at the same level according to their working ability and attitude. If everyone in a leading group has a strong sense of professionalism, responsibility and working ability, this contradiction may be covered up, but once the ability and professionalism of the team members are not strong, it will be more difficult for the president to handle and choose the deputy at the same level.

4. Operational risk-customer orientation and expansion desire are the subjective and objective factors that constitute the operational risk of small and medium-sized commercial banks.

Limited by financial strength and geographical characteristics, small and medium-sized commercial banks mainly serve small and medium-sized enterprises. However, at present, most of these enterprises have some problems, such as high asset-liability ratio, poor operating stability, less effective mortgaged property and insufficient development potential. A few small and medium-sized enterprises even evade debts through asset restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures or bankruptcy. Facing the customer base with poor stability in business conditions, it will objectively bear more business risks. At the same time, small and medium-sized commercial banks in China generally have a tendency to pursue "bigger". In the absence of effective supervision and restraint mechanism and self-discipline mechanism, excessive pursuit of deposit scale, loan scale and institutional expansion, coupled with some unreasonable institutional incentives, is inevitable. A senior official of China Minsheng Bank once pointed out that Minsheng Bank copied all the "viruses" of the four wholly state-owned banks. China Minsheng Bank is a listed bank with almost no state-owned shares, and other small and medium-sized commercial banks are no exception!

5. The problem of capital price-because of the disparity between the scale of state-owned commercial banks and small and medium-sized commercial banks, the capital price will be a fatal blow to small and medium-sized commercial banks.

With the acceleration of interest rate marketization in China, this problem will emerge. Because the breakeven point of capital price is closely related to the capital scale, that is, the larger the capital scale, the lower the breakeven point of capital price, so the advantages of wholly state-owned commercial banks in capital price are obvious. Because wholly state-owned commercial banks can use the floating range of interest rates to legally impact the capital prices of small and medium-sized commercial banks. At present, the pilot situation in Wenzhou proves this point. The person in charge of a wholly state-owned commercial bank once said: I will take advantage of my scale, the deposit will rise to the highest point in the floating range in the first year, the loan interest rate will drop to the lowest point in the floating range, and the small and medium-sized banks will be eliminated within one year, and the market will be mine in the second year. Small and medium-sized commercial banks have begun to shout loudly, and how to deal with the inevitable and upcoming interest rate marketization is indeed a problem worthy of serious attention.