Reborn Tycoon Rise

At the Bank of East Asia headquarters, Yuan Tianfan is reporting to Xu Zhi on the bank's operations during this period.

"Chairman, although we have eliminated a large number of high-risk real estate loan businesses in our hands before, the plummeting land prices have still had a great impact on our bank.

The first problem is that a large number of companies and individual customers have applied to banks to temporarily suspend loan repayments or to make lower loan payments due to economic problems. Originally, this was just a small matter, but there are too many people applying. If we do not agree, I am worried about these Some people will have the problem of a broken capital chain, which will be even more troublesome. But if agreed, this will seriously affect the bank's profits. "

The purpose of commercial banks is actually to earn an interest difference. What they hope most is that all customers can repay their loans on time with peace of mind. If a customer cuts off their loan payment, even if the loss can be stopped by auctioning the collateral, it will still require a lot of investment. Banks have always avoided this kind of thing.

Xu Zhi nodded and asked, "What's the second question?"

Yuan Tianfan said: "Recently due to the real estate crisis, many people have begun to sell stocks or cash out real estate, which has also led to a recent surge in bank deposits. It is impossible for us to not want this money, but in the current market environment, we will have a certain amount of money if we borrow money." risk."

"I understand. Generally speaking, this is not actually a problem for our bank, but a difficulty faced by the entire industry." Xu Zhi said with a smile.

When the real estate economy kidnaps the entire regional economy, housing prices have been tied to banks and even the entire economic system. Once housing prices fall, banks are the first to be affected, followed by other industries.

Take Xiangjiang for example. When real estate was booming, luxury stores in Causeway Bay were bustling with people, but now they are empty.

The Hong Kong government, Hong Kong's largest investor, spends tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars on infrastructure projects every year, and these funds all come from the Hong Kong government's fiscal revenue.

The Hong Kong government's fiscal revenue mainly comes from two main sources, one is taxation and the other is income from land sales.

Xiangjiang Company's tax has always been a 16% net profit tax, which is 16% of the annual profit. There is no commodity value-added tax. The company pays tax when it makes money, but not when it loses money.

For individuals, there are also stepped tax payment plans. In addition, there is an inheritance tax that changes every few years and was not completely abolished until the 21st century.

In addition, there are entertainment taxes, property taxes, hotel rent taxes, stamp duties, lottery taxes, off-camera taxes, etc. These are of various types, but they only target certain groups of people, and the tax rates are not high. In the Hong Kong government’s fiscal This proportion of income is not large.

In the 1950s and 1960s, more than 60% of Xiangjiang's fiscal revenue came from taxation, but now, the proportion is less than 30%, not because there is less tax payment, but because the income from land sales is too high.

Hong Kong's largest bank, HSBC, had a profit of almost HK$2.5 billion in 1982, and its annual tax payment was about HK$400 million, which is less than the total price of an ordinary residential land in Kowloon.

When the real estate crisis broke out, the Hong Kong government was most affected. Because the income from land sales dropped sharply and could not even be sold, it had to immediately cut back on various infrastructure investments.

A large number of government projects have gone out of business, and real estate companies have also slowed down their investment. This will inevitably cause a large number of construction workers to lose their jobs or have their incomes plummet. In this case, all people will naturally tighten their wallets and refuse to spend any more.

Money cannot rust at home. The natural choice for ordinary people is to deposit money in banks. However, due to the recession in the business and real estate industries, part of the money in the hands of banks suddenly disappeared.

"Yes, most Hong Kong banks currently have this problem." Yuan Tianfan replied. In fact, Bank of East Asia is much stronger than other banks. It began to clean up a large number of high-risk banks more than a year ago. As for housing loans, we promptly stopped lending projects with several small real estate companies, which has helped banks avoid a large number of potential risks.

Other banks have more or less housing loan projects that may become dead debts at any time. If you encounter a real estate company that owes a lot of debt and cannot turn around, you will face greater risks. If you don't pay attention, , you may even be taken in.

Xu Zhi thought for a while and smiled: "Actually, these two problems are very simple to solve. If we lend these surplus funds to customers who have temporary difficulty in repaying their loans, wouldn't we kill two birds with one stone?"

"Lend these people another sum of money?" Yuan Tianfan was stunned for a moment and asked: "If this is the case, won't our risks be even greater?"

Xu Zhi said with a smile: "Hong Kong has experienced several real estate crises in the past few decades. Although each time has been described by many people as the end of the world, in fact, this low land price will only last for two or three years at most. When land prices recover, Once it reaches a reasonable position, it will slowly rise again. As long as it lasts until that time, the difficulties in all industries will be lifted. As long as you have a house now, this house will be hard currency in the future. Don't worry about lending money to them. "

Yuan Tianfan asked: "What does the chairman mean by saying that housing prices in Xiangjiang will rise even higher than the housing prices at the beginning of the year in the future?"

"There is no highest, only higher." Xu Zhi said with a smile.

"In previous years, every time land prices fell, there would indeed be a sharp rebound, but this time it is different from the previous times. The problem now is not just economic factors." Yuan Tianfan expressed cryptically.

Xu Zhidao: "The mainland government has long proposed the strategy of one country, two systems and Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong. What are you worried about?"

Yuan Tianfan said: "I'm not worried about political issues, but also considering whether the new Xiangjiang government will have special control over the real estate market in the future. The simplest thing is that if the new government approves a large number of new land, I'm afraid the real estate market will never be the same." A place to turn around.”

It has always been thought that housing prices in Xiangjiang are low because of the large number of people, but in fact this is not the case at all.

Although Xiangjiang has a large population, its land area is not small. Excluding some mountains and nature reserves, the area available for people to live is actually more than 200 square kilometers.

But the reality is that in the future 21st century, the total land area developed for residential and commercial use in the entire Xiangjiang is only 77 square kilometers. This is actually the interest demand of the monopoly consortium.

Assuming that the new government allows the development of a large amount of land, housing prices will inevitably plummet. This is the idea of ​​the new Hong Kong Governor after 1997. Unfortunately, it failed in the end. Otherwise, Hong Kong will become better in future generations.

Xu Zhi shook his head and said: "You think too much, Tianfan, you are a top student at Cambridge University. When it comes to data, I can never beat you.

However, when I look at the future housing prices of a place, I do not look at the balance of supply and demand or market demand. I only look at one thing, and that is how much revenue from land auctions in this place accounts for the overall fiscal revenue.

Over the years, in order to build Hong Kong into a low-tax free port, the British Hong Kong government has basically given up tax revenue and can only rely on land auctions to obtain financial funds. Otherwise, the entire government system cannot support it at all.

The mainland government's attitude towards Hong Kong is that everything remains unchanged. This matter, which is fundamental to the operation of the Hong Kong government, will not change. "

"The chairman has considered everything comprehensively." Yuan Tianfan nodded and said, "Then I will immediately arrange for someone to count the people who need another loan."

"Well, but not everyone can apply for this loan. Although this is also a business, I only provide it to those who actually buy a house to live in. Any real estate speculators are not allowed to give them a penny." Xu Zhi said.

"Okay, no problem. Bank professionals will do their best to identify them." Yuan Tianfan assured with a smile.

Xu Zhi nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, let's do this for now. You go make arrangements and come out with me later in the afternoon. Bao Fuda and Chen Songqing want to talk to us about the loan."