Halyk Consumer Finance's complaints in the third quarter increased nearly 200% year-on-year, while the major shareholder Harbin Bank's net profit in the first half of the year declined by over 40%.

Recently, the Heilongjiang Office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) released a report on consumer complaints related to bank and insurance services for the first three quarters of 2022.

According to the data, in the first three quarters of 2022, the Heilongjiang CBIRC and the CBIRC branches in prefecture-level cities received a total of 2,639 consumer complaints from the banking sector, up 5.01% year over year; of these, other banking financial institutions received 373 complaints, up 258.65% year over year, accounting for 14.14% of total banking-sector complaints.

Based on the data, this year’s first, second, and third quarters saw Harbin Consumer Finance (hereinafter “Harbin Xiaojin”) receive 96, 73, and 52 complaints, respectively. Although the quarter-over-quarter figures declined, over the first three quarters of the year, Harbin Xiaojin’s total complaints reached 221, up 198.65% year over year; the same period last year was 74 complaints. In addition, Blue Whale Finance found that, according to disclosures, Harbin Xiaojin’s total complaints for the full year of last year were 163, representing a year-on-year increase of 340%.

The company’s official website shows that Harbin Consumer Finance was established with Harbin Bank as the primary investor and is the 19th consumer finance company to begin operations nationwide. The company officially began operations in April 2017, and after introducing Baidu’s Xiaoman Finance strategic investment in 2019, its registered capital increased to RMB 1.5 billion.

Tianyancha shows that Harbin Consumer Finance currently has 7 shareholders. Harbin Bank Co., Ltd. is the largest shareholder, holding 53% of the shares. Other shareholders include Du Xiaoman (Chongqing) Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Stafford Property Development Co., Ltd., Suzhou Tongcheng Software Co., Ltd., Beijing Boshen Youshi Technology Development Co., Ltd., Heilongjiang Saige International Trade Co., Ltd., and Heilongjiang Xinda Auction Co., Ltd., holding 30%, 6.33%, 5%, 3.33%, 1.67%, and 0.67% respectively.

Harbin Xiaojin has not published 2022 performance information on its official website, but as the main initiator, Harbin Bank’s interim report this year discloses related data of Harbin Xiaojin for 2022.

As of June 30, 2022, Harbin Xiaojin’s total assets were RMB 14.251 billion, up 2.62% year over year. Its loan balance was RMB 13.681 billion, up 4.92% from the beginning of the year and up 2.90% year over year. Cumulatively, it has served more than 32 million account holders, with cumulative lending of more than RMB 140 billion.

Notably, Tianyancha shows that the company has had the share equity of a shareholder frozen. In September 2020 and April 2021, the company’s entire equity held by Heilongjiang Saige International Trade Co., Ltd. was frozen twice. The courts of enforcement were the Harbin Intermediate People’s Court and the Harbin People’s Court, respectively.

Moreover, Harbin Xiaojin was first included in the list of business abnormalities by market regulation authorities in the second half of this year. The reason given was “failure to publicize the annual report within the prescribed time limit in accordance with Article 8 of the Interim Regulations on the Public Disclosure of Enterprise Information.” The listing date was July 1, and the decision-making authority was the Heilongjiang Provincial Administration for Market Regulation. Subsequently, Harbin Xiaojin issued an announcement stating that on the 12th of that month it completed the confirmation procedures for the previous year’s annual report on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. The company has been removed from the “business abnormality list,” and its operation and management are in good order.

In addition, data from the Black Cat Complaint platform show that, currently, Harbin Xiaojin’s cumulative complaint volume is 294. The complaint contents are mostly related to debt collection.

Besides Harbin Xiaojin, the performance of Harbin Bank, the company’s largest shareholder, is also not particularly satisfactory. Data show that in the first half of 2022, the bank’s operating income was RMB 6.993 billion, up 14% year over year. Its net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 495 million, down 41.89% year over year. In terms of asset quality, as of the first half of 2022, the bank’s non-performing loan ratio was 2.95%, up 0.07 percentage points from the end of the previous year. The provision coverage ratio was 174.67%, up 12.22 percentage points from the end of the previous year.

As of June 30, 2022, Harbin Bank’s total assets were RMB 661.6549 billion. The total amount of customer loans and advances was RMB 287.0476 billion, and total customer deposits were RMB 509.5103 billion. At the same time, all three capital indicators of the bank declined. Its core tier-one capital adequacy ratio was 8.87%, its tier-one capital adequacy ratio was 10.84%, and its capital adequacy ratio was 12%, each down by 0.41, 0.49, and 0.54 percentage points respectively compared with the end of the previous year.

Regarding complaints, according to the CBIRC Heilongjiang report, in the first three quarters of 2022 Harbin Bank received 242 complaints, up 22.84% year over year. The complaint volume ranked third among consumer complaints related to banking services.

The official website shows that Harbin Bank (06138.HK) was established in February 1997, with its headquarters in Harbin. Currently, it has 17 branches. On March 31, 2014, Harbin Bank was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. It was the third city commercial bank from China to list on the Hong Kong capital market, and also the first listed commercial bank in Northeast China.

(Editor: Ma Jinlu HF120)