Topic: 60 years of classic China glory
Photo by Xu Kangping, Central Bank Building
In 1949, the people who had just been liberated were still "distrustful of the paper money issued by the government, and felt that the silver dollar was more useful". Sixty years later, the RMB has become the undisputed "hard currency" in Hong Kong people’s wallets.
At the beginning of the founding of New China, the employees of CCB Shanghai Branch "packed up their backpacks and went to the construction site" to provide on-site services for key projects such as Shanghai Steam Turbine Factory, and shuttled through boiling construction sites all day. Sixty years later, they supported a large number of municipal construction projects from the elevated expressway to the Huangpu River tunnel through bilateral loans and syndicated loans.
Even 20 years ago, many people still couldn’t tell the difference between "China People’s Bank" and "China Bank". Today, the slightest policy trend of the People’s Bank of China has become the focus of worldwide attention.
60 years is only a short moment in the long river of history. However, for China’s financial industry, it is a "one-size-fits-all". In the past 60 years, China’s financial industry has gone through the ups and downs with the historical wheel of the Republic, and has completed the vicissitudes of life from the beginning to the rise, sorting out the growth path of a financial power.
Banking articles from zero starting point to global reputation
On February 26, 2009, Beijing was warm and cold. "In 2008, the after-tax net profit of banking financial institutions in China was 583.4 billion yuan, an increase of 30.6% over the previous year. Total profit, profit growth and return on capital are among the best in the world. " Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, who came to the the State Council Information Office, was all smiles to Chinese and foreign journalists: "In the financial crisis, although China’s banking industry could not be immune to it, it was unique in the world!"
The insurance industry serves people’s production and life.
In the face of the global financial crisis, the outstanding performance of China’s banking industry comes from the solid foundation laid by continuous reform and development in the past 60 years.
On December 1, 1948, the People’s Bank of China was formally established, assuming the dual roles of central bank and commercial bank. Today, the total assets of the banking industry reach 73.7 trillion yuan, and there are more than 5,600 banking financial institutions in China, with the central bank as the core and a complete financial organization system of banking, securities and insurance; A financial market system with coordinated development of capital market, money market, gold market and futures market; And the financial supervision system with the structure of "one line, three meetings" has begun to take shape.
Since the reform and opening up, China’s macro-economy has experienced several obvious fluctuations, including inflation, overheating and deflation. Correspondingly, it has also undergone several major macro-controls. During this period, the monetary policy closely follows the pulse of economic development, taking corresponding changes in a timely manner, becoming increasingly flexible, prudent and targeted, and ensuring the smooth progress of economic ships.
The average capital adequacy ratio of less than 5% and the non-performing assets ratio of more than 25% were the current situation of China commercial banks in 1993. In 2002, the National Financial Work Conference pushed the reform of commercial banks onto the historical stage. ICBC, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications successively went public and initially established a modern enterprise system. Non-performing loans in the banking industry decreased from 23.6% at the end of 2002 to 2.4% at the end of 2008. In the face of a foreign banker who was worried about the non-performing loans of China’s banking industry, a senior executive of the China Banking Regulatory Commission once said humorously to him: "You can safely drink the wine in the glass." "Going home during the holidays, have you got back all the wages earned by working?" "The money is in the card. We use the bank card now, which is much safer than carrying it with us." This is a conversation between Premier Wen Jiabao and a migrant worker at Beijing West Railway Station on the eve of the Spring Festival last year. It is through the special service of migrant workers’ bank cards that this young man realized his desire to earn money in other places and withdraw money at home. Today, the total circulation of bank cards in China exceeds 1.8 billion, and bank cards have become the most extensive and frequent non-cash payment tool for individual residents.
Securities articles move from childish ignorance to rational norms
If the 60-year magnificent course of China’s financial industry is a magnificent historical picture, then the birth and development of the capital market is undoubtedly one of the highlights.
On November 14th, 1986, Deng Xiaoping returned a stock of Shanghai Feile Audio Company as a gift to John Van Erling, then the chairman of new york Stock Exchange. At that moment, the international community exclaimed that "China shook hands with the stock market".
Growth chart of total assets of banks
Number growth chart of listed companies
The new China capital market is so immature: the first stock business counter opened in Shanghai in China has no computer and market display screen, and the transaction price determined by customers’ oral negotiation is written on the blackboard; The staff completes every procedure from delivery, registration, stamping to transfer by hand; The average daily transaction volume is only a few dozen.
Looking back, China’s capital market, which grew out of nothing and grew up in various criticisms and debates, has long since changed: the number of listed companies has grown from 14 at the end of 1991 to 1,628 at the end of July 2009, an increase of 115 times in 18 years. The total market value of Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets is 23.5 trillion yuan, accounting for 95.4% of GDP in 2008, ranking third in the world in terms of market value.
Behind these figures, there are more profound changes: the quality of listed companies has improved steadily and become a new force to promote economic development. A large number of super-large enterprises related to the national economy and people’s livelihood, including China Petroleum and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, have landed in the A-share market one after another. Institutional investors, including funds, social security and insurance funds, have gradually become the main force of the market. QFII and QDII have successively "rushed to the beach" and "went out to sea", becoming the link between the international capital market and the China capital market …
When "creating conditions for more people to have property income" entered the report of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China for the first time, people found that the development of the securities market expanded residents’ investment varieties from early single savings to stocks, national debt, funds, warrants, futures and other financial management tools. China’s capital market has not only become a "barometer" and "engine" of China’s economic development, but also become an important channel for investors to share economic achievements and form a wealth effect.
Insurance articles from outshine others to a hundred flowers blossom.
At the end of June, 2008, Zhang Guangfa, a farmer in Yingxiu Town who suffered heavy losses in the Wenchuan earthquake, received more than 3,000 yuan from the insurance company. Like Zhang Guangfa, nearly 20,000 people affected by the disaster started their new production and life after receiving compensation totaling 1.66 billion yuan. A year later, the insurance industry in the disaster area achieved rapid development. From January to May this year, the growth rates of accident insurance in Deyang, Mianyang and Guangyuan reached 98.8%, 98.3% and 265.4% respectively.
The growth footprint of the insurance industry can be followed: it is born of hardship, and it is synchronized with economic development, national strength and people’s prosperity.
On October 20th, 1949, the 20th day after the birth of New China, the central government approved the establishment of China People’s Insurance Company, the only insurance company in China. Starting from this, China’s insurance industry embarked on an extraordinary journey: in the late 1950s, the national financial conference decided to "immediately stop domestic insurance business"; Until April 1979, the State Council made a major decision to "gradually restore domestic insurance business"-the insurance industry, which had been silent for 20 years, revived in the spring breeze of reform and opening up.
"In the early days of reform and opening up, insurance was still a new thing for most people, and even many people mistakenly thought it was selling safes." As an old insurer, Lao Zhongping of China People’s Insurance Company Jiangmen Branch basically witnessed the leap from birth to "standing" in China’s insurance industry: from the beginning, one company monopolized the world, and the total premium income was only 460 million yuan. By the end of 2008, there were 120 insurance companies nationwide, achieving a premium income of 978.4 billion yuan, exceeding the sum of the national premium income from 1980 to 1999, and the market scale increased by more than 2,000 times.
In the past, people’s impression of insurance was limited to the "family property insurance policy" that they had vaguely seen. Now, a car insurance policy of several hundred yuan can intensively make more than 10 services such as "24-hour claim settlement", "private car escrow" and "drunk driving".
Thirteen employees and several dilapidated offices were the only assets of China Ping An Insurance when it was established in 1988. In June 2009, Ping An Insurance, with assets of 750 billion yuan, bought Shenzhen Development Bank in a big way-20 years later, China insurance industry blew the horn of marching into the comprehensive financial kingdom …
(The photos in this edition are provided by the People’s Bank of China and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission except the signature) Chart production: Li Jinjie
Editor: Xu Guimei
