Entering the fourth quarter, the interest rates of bank deposit products sold on Internet financial platforms have increased compared with the first three quarters, and products with annualized interest rates between 4% and 5% have appeared on a large scale again.

Practical test: High interest deposits mostly come from small and medium-sized banks

Platform promotion "interest rate hike" is watery

According to Nandu reporters, the products launched in the bank deposit sector this week were mostly 3-year and 5-year periods, with the highest 1-year interest rate of 2.25%, the highest 3-year period is 4.125%, and the highest 5-year period is 5%. The deposit amount of nearly half of the deposit products is only 50 yuan, and regular products are all supported to withdraw at any time in advance, and funds can be received on the same day.

In fact, many friends around me come to consult, can you buy such high interest and low threshold bank deposits? Where did you come from? According to rough statistics, the products sold on the above major Internet platforms are similar in origin, all of which are smaller urban commercial banks, rural commercial banks and rural banks. The number of cooperative banks, product numbers and interest rates vary from platform to platform. Among them, on the Internet financial platform with the largest number of products, among the products launched this week, there were more than 60 bank deposit products with interest rates exceeding 4%, involving more than 30 banks, of which 19 products have been sold out.

Because they do not have the advantages of traditional commercial banks' offline outlets, they can only attract deposits through high interest rates, and the annualized interest rates of fixed deposit products launched by them are generally between 4% and 5%. Such as Yingkou Coastal Bank, Blue Ocean Bank, Zhongbang Bank, Xinwang Bank, Huarui Bank, Fumin Bank, etc., are all frequent visitors of "Internet deposits".

According to Nandu reporters, most platforms have launched interest rate hikes ranging from 4.5% to 7% for new customers. In order to attract new customers to register and invest, all platforms have focused on the words "rate hike" and "help". So can these wool really be gained?

Take the "Xiangyunbao 90-day" deposit product on Ctrip's financial platform as an example. It starts at 50 yuan, with an annual deposit interest rate of 4.4%. Adding to the 7% interest rate hike coupon, it is easy for consumers to understand that they can obtain a deposit income of up to 11.75% annualized. But in fact, 7% of the first-time interest rate hike coupons are only for new customers who invest on the platform for the first time, and there is a valid period of 30 days after receiving the coupon. If it is not used within the valid period, it will expire and expire. Moreover, the actual interest rate is not as high as 11.75%. According to the instructions for using the 7% first-invest interest rate hike coupon issued by Ctrip Financial Platform, the period for the first-invest interest rate hike is 8 days from the interest rate date. The amount of interest rate hike cashback = investment amount * 7% * 8/360, and the maximum amount of a single cashback is 15 yuan. If calculated based on the 11.75% of what consumers think, the interest rate after the investment of 100,000 yuan is 2,937.5 yuan after the 90-day maturity. However, since the amount of cashback is upper limit, the interest rate hike is 15 yuan, and the principal increase is not increased due to the increase in principal. Therefore, the actual interest you can get from investing 100,000 yuan is 1,115 yuan, which is far from consumers' expectations.

is also like Ordos Bank product. The platform has promoted the promotion of "annualized interest rate of 6% + deposit, with a maximum reward of 1,288 yuan", but if you look closely at the rules, you will know that 6% annualized income is a gimmick. needs to be deposited for 100 days before it can get an annualized return of about 4.85%. If the holding time is less than 100 days, then it can only obtain a current interest rate; if it is held for one year, it can obtain a return of 6.675% (2.175% + 4.5%) in the first 100 days. On average, the actual annual interest rate is about 3.4%.

Degree Xiaoman Finance has 15 days to enjoy a +6.0% interest rate discount for new financial customers, and it shows on the promotional page: "The annualized coupon is about 7% in the first month of using the coupon." Among the products that can use interest rate hike coupons, the display interest rate of Yumin Bank Jinyucun No. 2 is 4.2%, and the interest payment period is 1 month. If the interest rate hike coupon is not required, assuming that 10,000 yuan is deposited, the interest rate for one month is 35 yuan; if uses interest rate hike coupons, the actual interest rate for one month is 49.65 yuan, which is converted to an annualized interest rate of 5.958%, which does not reach 7% of publicity.

Risk: Marketing overemphasizes "zero risk, high return"

Small and medium-sized banks may have liquidity risks across regions

In addition to the publicity of "interest rate hikes" and there is moisture, bank deposit products that are strongly promoted by various platforms may also have other risks. Nandu reporters noticed that recently, the behavior of small and medium-sized banks in launching deposit products on Internet financial platforms to attract deposits has attracted the attention of regulators.

Sun Tianqi, director of the Financial Stability Bureau of the People's Bank of China, said at the "Symposium on Exploration and Application of Regulatory Technology in the Field of Digital Finance" that this model breaks through the regional restrictions on local corporate banks' operations. Some local banks can absorb deposits from the country through Internet financial platforms. From the perspective of funding sources, they have become national banks, which is biased from the market positioning based on the local area and serving small and medium-sized enterprises. The liquidity characteristics of such deposits are also different from traditional savings deposits, and risk management and supervision must be able to keep up.

In addition, Sun Tianqi also said that the other three characteristics and problems of Internet platform deposits also need to be paid attention to: First, the Internet platform model provides customers with a deposit purchase interface, which is essentially a deposit marketing behavior; Second, it intends to highlight the publicity of deposit insurance protection, implying "zero risk, high returns", which facilitates the use of higher interest rates to attract depositors; Third, the unique attributes of Internet platform deposits bring challenges to the liquidity management of small and medium-sized banks.

Nandu reporter noticed that most of the bank deposit products of the aforementioned Internet platform are marked with the words "guaranteed principal and interest", "interest from the same day" and "deposit from 50 yuan". At the same time, a large number of 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year regular products focus on promoting their "flexible deposit and withdrawal" characteristics. The page display interest rates are generally as high as 4%-5%, but it should be noted that the interest rate displayed on the page is the annualized interest rate for maturity, which refers to the interest rate that can be enjoyed after depositing for 5 years. This will conflict with the so-called "flexible storage and access" selling point to a certain extent and may be misleading.

In this regard, Li Fengwen, a fourth-level researcher at a regulatory branch of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, analyzed that banks may have the following risks. On the one hand, customer information needs to be passed through a third-party platform and then to the bank, which can easily lead to the risk of customer information leakage; on the other hand, if the management is poor, it may lead to the third-party platform illegally absorbing deposits in the name of the bank, engaging in financial fraud activities, and causing financial losses to customers.

Internet wealth management business expert Wang Yongsheng believes that on the one hand, the risk lies in the bank's operating risks. For example, the overdue rate of bank asset business such as loan business may affect cash recovery and affect the stability of banks. If there is a run due to public opinion, it will bring liquidity risks; on the second hand, the regulatory policy is stopped or the Internet platform that banks rely on cooperation to suspend cooperation, which may lead to a sharp decline in the scale of reserve absorption and a sharp increase in the liquidity risks of banks. Local banks, especially rural commercial banks and rural banks, may be unhappy to see that cross-regional business development through the Internet.

Wang Yongsheng suggested that for investors, the first thing to do is to look at the Internet platform. Whether the platform is reliable and whether it can last for a long time. Deposit products are generally long, with a maximum of more than 5 years. The "storm" of the Internet platform will also affect the stability and security of the user's deposit business; secondly, whether the bank entity is a well-known bank, you can go to the bank's official website to check the total asset scale and operating conditions; thirdly, look at the product type, whether it is a deposit or a financial product. Personal deposits are protected by the deposit insurance regulations within 500,000 yuan, and users bear the risk of financial products at their own risk; fourthly, look at the product's term, interest payment method, withdrawal method and rate of return, choose the product that is most suitable for you, and do not just focus on buying products with high yields and miss liquidity.

Editor: Nandu reporter Xiong Runmiao

Design: Wu Huaikuan