科技改变中国金融？

一些进入金融业的大大小小的民营科技公司带来了一些新的金融产品，因此迅速成为人们热议的话题，它们是如何经营的？它们是否有改变中国金融业面貌的能力？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

peer-to-peer 点对点，即P2P

merchant bank 英国对投资银行的称呼

edict ['iːdɪkt] 法令

foray ['fɒreɪ] 突袭

encroachment [eŋ'krəʊtʃm(ə)nt] 侵犯，侵蚀

lethargy ['leθədʒɪ] 昏睡，死气沉沉

money market fund 一种投资于短期金融产品的基金，以流动性好著称

equity investor 股票投资者，equity在这里指的是股权和股票

Tech groups transform how finance is done in China（729 words）

By Henny Sender, FT chief international finance correspondent

Sometime soon, the newly formed though not yet formally named association of internet finance companies will receive official approval from Beijing. That is the view of Tang Ning, one such financial entrepreneur and the founder of Creditease, a peer-to-peer lending platform. It is a sign of how far the sector has come in just a few short years.

The internet is transforming the Chinese mainland. And nowhere are the changes more dramatic than in the financial sector. China's top leaders talk about reform, enabling private entrepreneurs, and changing the way capital is allocated away from the state-owned enterprises that still absorb the bulk of credit (though they account for an ever smaller part of output).

Yet it is the internet that is finally making China a much fairer place. “In the past, it was only the princelings that had early access to opportunities,” says tech hedge fund manager Richard Ji of All-Stars Investment, and a former tech analyst for Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong. “Now ordinary people do too.”

China's leaders call on the big state-owned financial institutions and their foreign partners in so-called village banks to lend to small and medium-sized enterprises. Financial inclusion has become a buzzword in China, as it already is in India. But, in fact, it is the internet entrepreneurs who are actually doing the most interesting things to change the way credit and investment work in China.

Mr Tang is one face of this quiet transformation. The heart of Mr Tang's business is to bring those with excess cash together with those who need it, with both sides receiving better rates than they could otherwise do. (Because he simply provides the platform, Mr Tang does not have or believes he requires any government licence.)

The money finances small start-ups which do not qualify for bank loans, such as a beauty salon or a car-washing business. That, in turn, has led Mr Tang to work with equipment makers and diversify into micro-leasing, an area too small to be of interest to state-owned enterprises. In another example of his expanding reach, he is making tuition loans available for vocational training and partnerships to develop online curriculums for those in need of practical education.

Bao Fan is another face of this transformation. While the traditional securities firms, such as Citic Securities and Haitong or now private equity-owned CICC, scrap over the business of listing the shares of state-owned companies in China or in overseas markets, Mr Bao dwells in a different world.

Mr Bao's clients are the tech entrepreneurs of China. His company, China Renaissance, is a merchant bank which invests in and provides traditional securities services to new economy groups. Mr Bao was, for example, the financial adviser to ecommerce company JD.com in its recent strategic partnership with Tencent and will have a role in listing JD when it goes public in May.

Indeed, companies such as Alibaba and Tencent are doing more than any edicts from Beijing to transform how finance is done in China. These technology firms are collecting money from their customers and placing it in money market funds that can command high rates because of the volume. Less than a year after it started taking deposits, one single online money market fund – Alibaba's Yu'e Bao (“Leftover Treasure” in Chinese) now has more depositors than the total number of equity investors in China. They are also disrupting the traditional (and under-developed) bank payment systems, and killing the fees the banks have gleaned from such services.

The customer base of these tech companies is staggering. Haitong has 4m customer accounts, Mr Bao estimates, while the Alipay unit of Alibaba has 180m active accounts.

To some concerned officials, some of the tech companies' forays into finance resemble a Ponzi scheme in which earlier customers get repaid from the inflows of later customers and may end badly. Regulators – perhaps surprisingly – seem willing to tolerate the encroachment of the tech companies, believing that they will force the state owned banks out of their lethargy.

At the same time, barriers to entry are coming down. “China is opening up the securities industry,” Mr Bao says. “Even private companies can get securities licences now. I will kill competitors through the internet.”

That may or may not be wishful thinking. But Mr Bao is right when he talks about “the revenge of the private sector.” It is long overdue.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What does Mr Tang do exactly?

A.Issuing online credit cards.

B.Consulting to micro enterprises.

C.Providing platform for peer-to-peer lending.

D.Making tuition loans for vocational training.

答案(1)

2.Alibaba and Tencent is upsetting whom especially?

A.Traditional securities firms.

B.Private equity companies.

C.State owned banks.

D.Money market funds.

答案(2)

3.Why peer-to-peer lending is growing?

A.They can charge higher rates on lenders.

B.They are entering areas that banks are not interested.

C.They finance promising startup businesses.

D.They gather new lenders and borrowers together.

答案(3)

4.According to the article, which of the following pair of money raiser--financial product is proper?

A.small starup business like beauty salon--micro loan

B.ecommerce company--private equity

C.depositor--money market fund

D.state-owned enterprise--loan from state-owned bank

答案(4)

* * *

(1)答案：C.Providing platform for peer-to-peer lending.

解释：这是作者在一开头花了较多笔墨介绍的第一种商业模式。peer-to-peer lending和plaform都可在前几段找到。

(2)答案：C.State owned banks.

解释：文章中间部分可以了解，阿里和腾讯搞的“宝”们就是在线销售的货币基金。它们与AB不构成直接竞争，但对国有银行来说是个威胁。

(3)答案：D.They gather new lenders and borrowers together.

解释：这种金融模式的特点和优势。

(4)答案：A.small starup business like beauty salon--micro loan

解释：A是很适合的匹配。B是不一定，电商需要多种融资渠道。C是错误的，存款人并非需要融资的人。 D按照作者的观点，是不合理的，因为the state-owned enterprises that still absorb the bulk of credit (though they account for an ever smaller part of output).