I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 644 "Banks Daring Not to Lend, Farmers Unable to Obtain Loans"

"President Fang, I've reviewed the report. Your Jinghai Bank's microcredit business is performing quite well. Of course, the main reason is that the quota allocated to you is relatively small," Hu Huaiwen said.

“But we have fewer branches and fewer staff. We basically only have one branch in each county, which is incomparable to the rural commercial bank having branches in every town,” Fang Qingye quickly explained.

Please don't give me more credit just because we did a good job with the task.

Many leaders like to whip the fast ox.

Hu Huaiwen said, "The original plan for Nanxin Rural Bank was to set up a branch in every town, but you stopped it after you took over. Don't think I don't know."

"I'm just adjusting the bank's strategic direction. Look how well Jinghai Bank is doing now, contributing a lot of tax revenue to Nanxin last year," Fang Qingye argued.

"Alright, don't worry, the tasks have been assigned, and I won't give you any extra quotas."

Hearing Hu Huaiwen say this, Fang Qingye felt relieved.

Everything else is negotiable, just don't increase our credit limit.

"President Fang, what I wanted to say today is that microcredit for agriculture has always been a difficult and painful point for all banks. The specific difficulties are known to leaders at all levels, but this policy to benefit farmers was formulated by the state and cannot be ignored. The key now is whether we can find a solution."
Hu Huaiwen continued, "Your Jinghai Bank is conducting pilot work on digital finance. President Fang, you have a quick mind, can you come up with a solution?"

It turned out to be the case.

"Okay, Mayor Hu, I will convene a meeting as soon as I get back to convey the contents of today's meeting and your instructions," Fang Qingye said.

"Hehe. What I said wasn't an instruction, just a private conversation between friends," Hu Huaiwen said with a smile.

“I understand, I will seriously consider the issue you raised,” Fang Qingye said.

"Okay, feel free to call me if you encounter any difficulties."

These days, half-day meetings don't include meals, so Fang Qingye called Hu Lingling. When she returned to the hotel, she saw Hu Lingling standing at the door of her room, holding various handbags in her hands.

What a shopaholic!

Hu Lingling comes from a well-off family and earns a decent salary. I heard she has found a boyfriend who is a full-time employee of the county power bureau, which is a high-paying job, so she spends money very lavishly.

"Let's go eat, then head back to Nanxin!"

Today is Friday, and Fang Qingye did not plan to hold a meeting to convey the message. She would hold a meeting for the bank president first on Monday, followed by a meeting for the branch presidents and department heads, to avoid everyone having to travel back and forth.

However, when Fang Qingye came to work in the afternoon, she called Deng Rong, who was in charge of credit work, to her office, briefly conveyed the spirit of the city meeting, and then asked about the progress of the bank's microcredit work for farmers.

"This year, the city assigned us a target of 5000 million yuan, and as of last week, we had disbursed 1820 million yuan. We are basically following the requirements from above," Deng Hui said.

"How is the quality of the loan?"

"It's hard to say." Deng Rong shook her head: "Yesterday, the Liulin branch reported that a farmer they lent 30 yuan to last year has been confirmed to be unable to repay the loan on time."

"reason?"

"It was a professional chicken farmer, but this spring, when bird flu broke out, a large number of Langshan chickens died, and the chicken farm suffered heavy losses. So I heard from the farmer that he was unable to repay the loan on time."

“In this situation, farmers can apply for a loan repayment deferral,” Fang Qingye said. “There’s another household that borrowed 5 yuan. This guy didn’t use it for production but secretly lent it out at high interest rates. As a result, he lost everything. He didn’t make any money and can’t even get his principal back, so he can’t repay the loan to us,” Deng Hui said.

Fang Qingye frowned immediately after hearing this.

"How did the Liulin branch approve this in the first place?! How could they give a loan to someone like this?!"

"There were too many people applying for loans at the time, and the branch's credit department only had a few people. They simply couldn't keep up. I guess they only looked at the submitted materials and didn't actually visit the farmers' homes. To be honest, this kind of situation is not an isolated case; it happens frequently in other banks as well," Deng Hui quickly explained.

It should be noted that Fang Qingye's confidant, Wei Huaquan, is currently the assistant branch manager of the Liulin branch. If Fang Qingye insists on pursuing this matter, it will not only be the responsibility of the person involved but also the responsibility of Wei Huaquan, the supervisor in charge.

Normally, this would be fine, but criticism or performance-based penalties would be possible. However, the department is preparing to hold a meeting to discuss Wei Huaquan's promotion to deputy branch manager of Liulin branch. Let's hope this matter doesn't ruin it!
Fortunately, Fang Qingye did not intend to pursue the matter too much. Instead, she said, "I know that microloans are indeed a rather troublesome task. Mayor Hu asked us to think about whether there are any better solutions. You should also consider it. We'll have everyone discuss it at our meeting on Monday."

"Ok."

Deng Hui then reported on the situation at other branches, which were all largely the same.

After Deng Hui left, Fang Qingye drank tea and pondered this question.

In fact, the problem of difficulty in obtaining small loans for farmers has not been completely resolved even after ten years.

Banks, especially small and medium-sized banks involved in agriculture, are plagued by five major problems: difficulty in risk identification, high management costs (difficulty in risk control), high operating costs, thin profits (uneconomical), difficulty in post-loan management (difficulty in monitoring), and lack of early warning mechanisms.

However, we cannot dismiss some beneficial attempts that are tailored to local conditions just because the problem has not been completely solved. Fang Qingye is now thinking about whether there are any good solutions to the difficulties faced by Jinghai Bank.

Of course, you should still get a good rest on weekends.

Since Taozi and her classmates were coming, Fang Qingye didn't go fishing in the countryside; instead, she waited at the nursery.

Around 10 a.m., Fang Qingye heard a car horn outside the nursery. When she went out, she found it was Bai Ou's Mercedes-Benz C200.

Fang Qingye bought this car for Bai Ou when she graduated with a master's degree and started working at the Jinghai Court. She has been driving it for almost four years and hasn't changed it. She drives it to work every day.

However, the people who got out of the car were Peach and a strange girl with flaxen hair. She was also very tall, about the same height as Peach, and was wearing a floral dress. She was very fair-skinned and her face didn't look like an American but more like a Scandinavian.

Today, Huang Tao was wearing a T-shirt and denim shorts, showing off her long legs.

It's not even May yet, and people are already dressed so lightly?
Thankfully, it's a sunny day today.

"Ye Zi, I'm going to your house to borrow Sister Bai Ou's car." Huang Tao explained, then introduced the girl next to her: "This is my classmate Lily Williams, you can call her Lily."

“He is Fang Qingye, you also call him Yezi.” Huang Tao translated into English.

"Hello, Miss Lily," Fang Qingye said in English.
He was very polite and even shook hands with the other person.

"Hello, Leaf."

"Please come in." Fang Qingye beckoned the two girls into the nursery.

(End of this chapter)