A number of ESG reports have been released The green finance transformation of consumer finance companies has accelerated
Since the issuance of the Green Finance Guidelines for the Banking and Insurance Industry, not only traditional financial institutions have released environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) reports, but licensed consumer finance companies, as new inclusive financial institutions, have also realized the positive impact of ESG concepts on the market, and have gradually carried out ESG layout in rural revitalization, inclusive finance, consumer protection and other fields.
Recently, Centaline Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Centaline Consumer Finance") released its first environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) report. In fact, in addition to Centaline Consumer Finance, many consumer finance companies such as Instant Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Immediate Consumption") and Beijing Sunshine Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sunshine Consumption") have also successively released ESG reports.
As consumer finance gradually becomes a red ocean trend, and its development gradually shifts from fanaticism to rationality, how can aviation companies break through the bottleneck of development? The concept of ESG sustainable development has become a common concern, and the above report also reflects that consumer finance companies have begun to find new paths for development and reform, focusing on exploring the strategic deployment of multi-dimensional and balanced development, and gradually began to implement relevant cases.
Information disclosure adds a new army
The development history of the consumer finance industry is not very long, and it was not until 2009 after the promulgation of the Measures for the Pilot Administration of Consumer Finance Companies that the provision of loans for consumption purposes to individuals residing in China officially appeared as the concept of consumer finance.
However, the industry is growing rapidly.
According to the "China Consumer Finance Company Development Report (2023)" released by the China Banking Association, by the end of 2022, the number of customers served by consumer finance companies exceeded 300 million, reaching 338 million, a year-on-year increase of 18.4%; The asset scale and loan balance both exceeded 800 billion yuan, reaching 884.4 billion yuan and 834.9 billion yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%, higher than the economic and consumption growth rate, and made a positive contribution to the recovery and expansion of consumer demand.
Different from traditional commercial banks, auto finance companies, microfinance companies and other institutions that are also engaged in consumer finance, consumer finance companies, as the only institutions specializing in consumer finance business, have effectively played an important role in the real economy of financial services through the close connection between financial services and consumption links.
However, with the rapid development of consumer finance, the competition in the consumer financial market is becoming more and more fierce, and the head effect is obvious and the phenomenon of product homogenization is prominent. Under the intensification of the industry's 28 effect, consumer financial institutions have turned their attention to ESG.
The reporter of "China Business News" found that the ESG reports have been released on immediate consumption, Zhongyuan consumer finance, and sunshine consumption, and their reports all contain governance, consumer protection and scientific and technological innovation.
It is worth mentioning that immediate consumption has also developed rural revitalization services with scientific and technological innovation as the incision. It is understood that immediate consumption took the initiative to participate in the rural revitalization strategy, and learned through multi-party visits and investigations that free-range chickens in the chicken industry generally have problems such as counting, weighing, environmental monitoring, health traceability, and sales channels. To this end, Immediate Consumption has relied on its own technical endowments in the field of big data analysis and artificial intelligence, self-developed "Fuhuiyang" smart breeding platform, and provided it to farmers in Yubei District, Matjiang County and Shizhu County for free use, providing farmers with one-stop comprehensive services such as smart breeding, product traceability, order transaction tracking, capital docking, and resource matching. Through product traceability, breeding process monitoring, etc., effectively improve the added value of products and product image, drive sales, and increase the income of farmers by more than 20%. Through the digital presentation of the whole process, the farm is transformed from "movable property" to "real estate", which is conducive to the accurate credit granting of farmers' financing needs in the bank-farmer docking and improves the availability of farmers' financing.
"In view of the financing problems of free-range chicken breeding enterprises, we take financial technology innovation as the core and explore a closed-loop financial innovation model of 'financial technology + insurance + banking'. A group of chickens (about 3,000 chicks) from the free-range chicken farm of Yuangeng Agricultural Company located in Laojunshan Village, Luoyuan Town, Yubei District, was selected as the pilot object, and successfully obtained bank loan credit based on this model. Based on this model, the original farming company can reduce the breeding risk, and banks and insurance companies can use the immediate consumption platform to realize remote real-time monitoring of chicken farms after loans and insurance, and can deal with abnormalities in time to reduce credit risks and insurance risks. Immediate Consumption actively promotes the innovation of rural financial services through financial technology and digital technology, releases the value of the 'three rural areas' data, and accurately helps rural revitalization with the deep integration of finance and technology. "Immediately consume to reporters.
There are already cases of supporting green and low-carbon transformation
On June 1, 2022, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued the Guidelines on Green Finance in the Banking and Insurance Industry, raising the development of green finance in the banking and insurance industry to a strategic level. At the same time, the guidelines propose that the banking and insurance industry should integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements into management processes and comprehensive risk management systems. This is seen as an important milestone in the development of green finance in China.
The consensus in the industry is that the key to practicing ESG concepts in credit business lies in accurate identification and accurate matching, improving the quality and efficiency of financial services, vigorously promoting green finance under the "dual carbon" goal, and realizing online, paperless and intelligent business through technological innovation, so as to achieve the effect of energy conservation and emission reduction.
In terms of paperless, the ESG report of Sunshine Consumer Finance shows that in its actual business, various service links such as application, approval, lending, and repayment have achieved paperless operations, and the contract signing is electronically signed, and fully automated online processing is fully realized. As of June 30, 2023, more than 80 million electronic contracts have been signed.
Centaline Consumer Finance also said that since its establishment in 2016, the company has implemented paperless office and signed electronic contracts to help the "dual carbon" goal, and the cumulative carbon emission reduction has reached 21,076.07 tons. In addition, starting from the concept of green finance, Centaline Consumer Finance is the first in the industry to launch the "7-day no reason repayment" right, users can repay the loan within 7 days before the first loan without charging any fees, encouraging users to consume rationally, borrow calmly, and avoid waste of resources.
CMF Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CMF") also introduced to reporters the relevant progress of its current full-process digital green financial services.
It is reported that CMF innovates green financial products and services, actively explores transition finance, improves environmental and climate risk management capabilities, and helps achieve green and low-carbon transformation and development. In response to the credit needs of different consumption scenarios and different customers, CMF immediately launched two major consumer financial product systems, "good term loan" and "credit payment", providing users with all-online, collateral-free inclusive consumer credit services, and laying the foundation for paperless and automated green finance operations. The "Three H" service is also based on interaction with customers, accurately identifies customers' demands or difficulties, and promotes the service "endless benefits", which has achieved the practical effect of "making credit live up to expectations".
Regarding the company's management mechanism and risk control, Centaline Consumer Finance said: "Centaline Consumer Finance focuses on promoting the integration of ESG concepts with corporate business activities, establishing and improving ESG management mechanisms, integrating ESG concepts into the company's long-term development strategy and major decisions, adhering to the risk management concept of "financial technology, big data empowerment, exploration and innovation", running 'big data' and 'intelligent algorithms' throughout the risk control process, creating an intelligent risk control system, and building a solid financial firewall. Quantitative and reporting system, continue to promote the construction of risk management culture, effectively improve the overall risk management system, and escort the sustainable, healthy and stable development of business. ”
CMF said that it pioneered a pure online development model in the industry, took the lead in launching financial services for all customer groups and full-process automation, and formed six core capabilities such as IT-driven, product innovation, smart services, Internet risk control, digital operations, and intelligent collection. The smart virtual workplace application of CMF remote online alleviated the problem that customer service personnel in 56 cities could not find employment during the epidemic, and created employment opportunities for 336 disabled people. "While constantly consolidating our own capabilities, we are also actively carrying out scientific and technological output. In terms of intelligent capital scheduling and intelligent asset management services, it has reached cooperation with nearly 100 institutions in the same industry. In addition, it also strengthens technology empowerment in the ESG field, and promotes green public welfare through intelligent and digital intelligent cloud applications. ”
According to the "ESG Practice Report of Consumer Financial Institutions (2023)" released by Zero One Think Tank, the desire of Chinese financial institutions to explore ESG is increasing day by day, and some institutions have embarked on an innovative path focusing on ESG development and balancing economic and social benefits. As the carbon market moves from local pilots to the whole country, creating good conditions for financial institutions to develop carbon financial products such as carbon loans and carbon bonds in an orderly manner, the launch of climate investment and financing pilots, and the emergence of individual carbon accounts, triggering a new wave of sustainable development, looking forward to the future, consumer financial institutions will have more beneficial attempts on the ESG road.
