A batch of Chinese privately owned banks that reformers hoped would direct loans to credit-starved consumers and small businesses have yet to achieve significant scale, denting hopes that they will transform the state-dominated banking system.
改革人士原本指望中国一批民营银行把贷款导向急需信贷的消费者和小企业，但这些银行尚未达到足够大的规模，使得对它们改变国有银行占主导地位的银行体系的希望受挫。
China’s banking regulator has revealed data for the first time on a group of five privately owned banks that Beijing approved in 2014 as part of a closely watched pilot programme. The group includes WeBank, backed by social media group Tencent Holdings, and MYBank, controlled by Ant Financial, the financial affiliate of ecommerce giant Alibaba Group.
中国银行业监管机构首次发布了5家2014年获准成立的民营银行的数据。这5家银行属于一个受到密切关注的试点项目，其中包括社交媒体集团腾讯控股(Tencent Holdings)支持的微众银行(WeBank)，和电商巨头阿里巴巴集团(Alibaba Group)旗下金融子公司蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)持股的网商银行(MYbank)。
As a group, the five pilot banks had total assets of Rmb133bn ($19bn) by the end of September and Rmb572m in the first three quarters on 2016, the regulator disclosed. That compares with Rmb217tn in banking assets for Chinese banks overall. If the group were a single institution, it would rank 18th among Chinese lenders by assets.
中国银监会披露称，这5家试点银行截至今年9月底的资产总额达到1330亿元人民币（合190亿美元），今年前3季度的净利润共计5.72亿元人民币。而中国银行业的资产总额达到217万亿元人民币。如果这几家银行是一家机构的话，其资产规模在中国银行业将排在第18位。
“In absolute terms, the scale of their assets is very small, so they don’t pose a significant threat to traditional banks,” said Zhong Jiayong, analyst at Beijing Unbank Investment Consultant, which tracks the industry. “But they each have specific advantages that they can exploit, whether it’s their internet platforms or industry knowledge.”
“从绝对数字看，它们的资产规模非常小，所以它们对传统银行构不成重大威胁，”跟踪银行业的北京银联信投资顾问有限责任公司(Beijing Unbank Investment Consultant)的分析师钟加勇说。“但是，它们每一家都有可以利用的特别优势，无论是互联网平台、还是行业知识。”
China’s banks are overwhelmingly state-owned, and small, privately owned businesses have long complained that they struggle to obtain loans. Meanwhile, politically directed lending by state banks has sustained an army of state-owned “zombie enterprises” that are unprofitable but cannot die.
中国的绝大多数银行是国有银行，小型民营企业长期以来一直抱怨称，它们很难获得贷款。另一方面，国有银行具有政治导向的贷款发放，维持了一大批国有“僵尸企业”——它们没有盈利能力，却不能倒闭。
Reform advocates had hoped that privately owned banks would shake up the industry by lending to underserved borrowers and even diverting some customer deposits away from incumbent banks. In a sign of the high-level attention, Chinese premier Li Keqiang attended WeBank’s launch ceremony last year.
改革倡导者们原本希望，民营银行会撼动整个银行业，把贷款发放给未得到充分金融服务的借款人，甚至从原有银行分流一部分客户存款。去年中国总理李克强出席了微众银行的开业仪式，显示出高层的重视。
But the latest figures suggest the private banks — most of which started operations in 2015 — remain too small to meaningfully influence overall credit allocation. Rather than threatening traditional banks, the upstarts are mainly expected to draw on the resources of their corporate backers to serve specific niches.
但最新数据显示，民营银行——多数于2015年开始营业——仍规模太小，无法对整体信贷配置产生重大影响。这些新生银行没有威胁到传统银行，而是主要被寄望利用其股东的资源服务于具体的细分市场。
For Tencent and Ant Financial, that means drawing on huge troves of user data to identify worthy borrowers and assess credit risk. For others, such as banks backed by airline operator JuneYao Group and auto parts manufacturer Wanxiang China Holdings, it means leveraging relationships with and knowledge about customers and suppliers, who can also become borrowers.
对于腾讯和蚂蚁金服而言，这意味着利用海量用户数据去识别有价值的借款人和评估信贷风险。对其他银行、比如航空服务运营商均瑶集团(JuneYao Group)和汽车部件生产商中国万向控股(Wanxiang China Holdings)出资成立的银行而言，这意味着利用与顾客和供应商之间的关系、以及有关顾客和供应商的知识，这两者也可能成为借款方。
According to WeBank’s president, the lender has extended loans to 60m customers since launch. Its most popular product is consumer loans, with an average amount of Rmb8,000. MYBank said earlier this year that its typical loan size was Rmb20,000.
微众银行行长称，自开业以来，该行已向6000万客户发放了贷款。其最受欢迎的产品是消费贷款，平均贷款额为8000元人民币。今年早些时候，网商银行表示，其典型贷款规模为2万元人民币。
But internet banks have yet to resolve the issue of account opening procedures, given that most have few or no physical branches, Mr Zhong warned. Chinese law requires bank customers to appear in person and present identification in order to open an account. That has limited the private banks’ ability to attract deposits.
但钟加勇警告称，由于互联网银行大多没有实体网点或网点很少，它们尚未解决开户程序问题。中国法律规定，客户必须亲临银行提交身份证件，才能开立账户。这就限制了民营银行吸引存款的能力。
Rather than deposits, private banks have relied on interbank borrowing to fund their balance sheets. MYBank is also seeking investors for its first loan securitisation deal and intends securitisation to become a major source of funding.
民营银行一直依靠银行间拆借而不是存款来支撑其资产负债表。网商银行也在为其首笔贷款证券化交易寻找投资人，并打算把证券化发展为一条主要筹资渠道。
Since the initial group of five private banks in 2014, the regulator has approved six others.
自2014年批准成立第一批5家民营银行以来，中国银监会又批准了另外6家。