China has moved to rein in an explosion of short-term high-yielding products offered by banks, which regulators see as a potentially dangerous side-effect of a lending spree by banks since the global financial crisis.

　　中國已采取行動遏制銀行短期、高收益產品的爆炸式增長。全球金融危機以來，中國各銀行掀起了一場放貸狂潮。在監管部門看來，上述產品的爆炸式增長是這場狂潮帶來的、有可能導致危險的副產品。

　　In rules published on Wednesday, the China Banking Regulatory Commission demanded that banks do more to manage and disclose risks involved in their so-called “wealth management products”, which function like certificates of deposit with a duration of just a few weeks.

　　中國銀監會(CBRC)在周三公布的《商業銀行理財產品銷售管理辦法》（征求意見稿）中規定，商業銀行應采取進一步措施管理和披露與所謂“理財產品”相關的風險。這些理財產品的功能，相當于期限只有幾周的定期存單。

　　Having issued a torrent of credit over the past three years, Chinese banks are now working to attract enough funding to keep their loan-to-deposit ratio below the 75 per cent regulatory threshold.

　　過去3年里，中國各銀行發放了海量的貸款。如今，它們正想方設法吸收足夠的存款，以使自己的貸存比低于75%這一監管門檻。

　　While that is not in doubt for the country’s largest banks, smaller institutions are engaged in increasingly fierce competition to increase or simply maintain their deposit base, and the new rules signal official alarm at the aggressive steps they are taking. “Banks must not sell wealth management products which are not based on market analysis, have no risk-control mechanisms, have no risk measurement, and cannot be independently appraised,” said the CBRC.

　　對中國的大銀行來說，這個目標毫無疑問可以實現。但對中小型銀行來說，它們得要參與到日益激烈的競爭中，才能擴大、甚至只是維持自己的存款基礎，而新管理辦法對它們正在采取的激進舉措發出了正式警告。銀監會表示，“商業銀行不得銷售無市場分析預測、無風險管控預案、無風險評級、不能獨立測算的理財產品。”

　　Concerns about China’s financial system have tended to focus on the asset side of banks’ balance sheets, particularly the huge amounts they have lent to local governments and the potential for a wave of defaults.

　　人們對中國金融系統的擔憂，多集中在銀行資產負債表的資產方面——尤其是銀行向地方政府發放的海量貸款，以及出現違約潮的可能性。

　　The national audit office revealed this week that local government debts amounted to more than a quarter of China’s gross domestic product.

　　中國國家審計署本周表示，地方政府的總債務已超過中國國內生產總值(GDP)的四分之一。

　　However, the restrictions on the wealth management products show that the liability side of banks’ balance sheets is also becoming problematic as they scramble to shore up their funding base.

　　但是，上述對理財產品的限制措施表明，隨著銀行爭先恐后地充實自己的存款基礎，它們資產負債表的負債方面也在出現問題。

　　China caps the deposit rates that banks can offer well below lending rates, giving them a handsome net interest margin as a guaranteed source of profit. But depositors do not like putting their money in low-yielding accounts, so banks have been creating wealth management products to keep them satisfied.

　　根據監管部門的規定，商業銀行的存款利率要比貸款利率低很多，這讓它們獲得了相當可觀的凈利差，掌控了一種有保障的利潤來源。但是，儲戶不愿把錢存入低收益的存款賬戶，所以銀行一直在推出各種理財產品以滿足他們的需求。

　　These products are typically short term, running between two and 31 days. And in annualised terms, they offer interest rates as high as 8 per cent, more than double the benchmark one-year 3.25 per cent deposit rate.

　　這些理財產品通常期限較短，在2天至31天之間。按年率計算，這些產品提供的利率最高為8%，相當于基準的1年期存款利率（3.25%）的兩倍多。

　　Charlene Chu, an analyst with Fitch Ratings in Beijing, said the single biggest risk was a liquidity crunch “because of the very short-term nature of the products and the resulting duration mismatch between assets and liabilities”.

　　惠譽評級(Fitch Ratings)駐北京分析師朱夏蓮(Charlene Chu)表示，最大的風險是流動性吃緊，“這是由這些產品的短期性特點以及由此造成的資產與負債期限不匹配所致”。

　　Banks must roll over the wealth management products every few weeks to keep the cash flowing. If clients decided to stop buying the products, it would be tantamount to a withdrawal and banks would need to come up with their money, but bank assets are mainly tied up in longer-term loans and are not easily liquidated.

　　銀行必須每隔幾周將理財產品滾轉一次，以保持資金的流動。如果客戶決定不再購買這些產品，那就相當于提款，銀行必須為客戶準備好相關款項。但銀行的資產卻主要系于長期貸款，不容易變現。

　　There are about Rmb7,000bn ($1,082bn) in outstanding wealth management products, according to the official Xinhua news agency, more than triple the amount at the end of last year and equating to 9 per cent of total Chinese bank deposits.

　　據官方新華社稱，中國理財產品總額高達7萬億元人民幣（合1.082萬億美元），為去年底的三倍多，相當于中國銀行業存款總額的9%。