Thoughts on Strengthening the Management of savings bonds

Savings-type national debt refers to the non-negotiable registered national debt issued by the government to individual investors to absorb personal savings funds and meet the needs of long-term savings and investment. Since the first issue of 1994, savings bonds has played an important role in raising financial funds, promoting economic development and meeting people's investment needs. The People's Bank of China, as the supervision and management department of savings bonds's issuance and payment, has accumulated rich experience and achieved good results in regulating the operation order of national debt, avoiding the risk of national debt funds, safeguarding investors' rights and interests, and promoting the healthy development of the national debt market. In 2004, in view of the backward technology of the national debt issuance system, the low transparency of the issuance progress, and the difficulty in adjusting the issuance tasks among regions, the savings-type national debt (electronic) which makes full use of modern computer network technology came out, further activating the national debt market, enriching the issuance varieties of national debt, and adjusting the tasks flexibly, making it more convenient and fast for individual investors to buy and pay national debt. At the same time, the new management system of national debt issuance and redemption also poses a new challenge to the People's Bank of China to improve the management mode of national debt and improve the efficiency of national debt issuance. How to give full play to the positive role of the People's Bank of China in the management of savings bonds, and how to serve and facilitate investors to the greatest extent have become realistic issues that need to be studied and solved urgently.

First, the current situation of national debt management of the People's Bank of China

(A) the legal responsibility of national debt management

Article 4 of China People's Bank Law entrusts the People's Bank of China with the responsibility of "managing the state treasury" according to law. Article 25 stipulates: "The People's Bank of China may issue and pay treasury bonds and other government bonds to financial institutions on behalf of the financial department of the State Council". The documents issued by the Ministry of Finance in savings bonds also clearly stipulate that during the issuance period, the People's Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance will inspect the implementation of underwriting institutions as required. According to relevant laws and regulations, the People's Bank of China fully performs the function of "government bank" and cooperates with the financial department to carry out the management of government bond issuance and payment.

(two) to strengthen the management of the issuance and payment of government bonds.

For a long time, the People's Bank of China has actively cooperated with the financial department to strengthen the management of savings bonds's issuance and payment, and established a management system for financial institutions to carry out treasury bonds business by formulating rules and regulations such as the Measures for the Evaluation of Members of the Certificate-based Treasury Bond Underwriting Group (Trial) and the Measures for the Examination and Approval of Membership of the Treasury Bond Underwriting Group. Strengthen the construction of the market access and exit mechanism of the members of the national debt underwriting syndicate by examining the members of the underwriting syndicate, determining the membership, and clarifying the discipline of issuance, redemption and liquidation; Through the supervision and inspection of oversold, reluctance to sell, untimely payment and irregular accounting, and the comprehensive evaluation after the end of the annual issuance period, the daily management of the agency will be strengthened.

(C) to promote the construction of national debt management information

In recent years, the People's Bank of China has vigorously carried out information construction, popularized the Treasury Data Information Analysis System (TMIS) nationwide, and integrated the data information resources of various treasury systems such as the Treasury Information System, the Treasury Data Centralized System and the Treasury Accounting System to form a unified data information analysis platform. Among them, the national debt management subsystem arranges, processes and calculates the national debt data information through pre-established rules, which realizes the rapid exchange and comprehensive enjoyment of national debt information resources, further smoothes the transmission of national debt information in the system and provides strong information support for national debt management decision-making.

(4) Actively expand the rural national debt market.

In order to popularize the knowledge of national debt, raise investors' awareness of national debt, and raise the awareness of national debt investment of county and rural residents, the People's Bank of China carried out national debt publicity in various ways, and extended the knowledge and investment concept of national debt from cities to rural areas through the activity of "serving agriculture, rural areas and farmers to send national debt to the countryside", which promoted rural residents' understanding of national debt knowledge, enhanced their recognition of national debt, increased their enthusiasm for purchasing, broadened the investment channels of rural residents, and provided help for increasing farmers' property income.

Two, the people's Bank of savings bonds management constraints

The responsibilities are vague, and the law enforcement basis is not clear.

At present, savings bonds is mainly managed by the Ministry of Finance and the People's Bank of China. The responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance are mainly reflected in the formulation and implementation of the national debt issuance policy and the use of treasury funds. The responsibilities of the People's Bank of China are mainly embodied in the specific organization and implementation of the issuance and redemption of savings bonds and the supervision and management of market participants. However, in practice, although the People's Bank of China is mentioned as the regulatory body in savings bonds in the issuance documents of national debt, there is no specific law to clearly define the specific responsibilities, authorities and tasks of the People's Bank of China in the management of national debt. The vague definition of legal liability restricts the overall supervision and management of the issuance and redemption business of savings bonds underwriting institutions by the People's Bank of China according to the relevant documents on the issuance of national debt. However, due to the low legal level of documents and the lack of specific punishment measures and operating standards, the People's Bank of China, as a "bank of banks", can not carry out business management of underwriting institutions in savings bonds, which seriously affects the seriousness and authority of the management of national debt of the People's Bank of China.

(2) The management mechanism of national debt is loose, and the lack of system leads to insufficient binding force.

First of all, according to the division of labor of various functional departments in the supervision of national debt, the People's Bank of China is responsible for managing the specific issuance and payment business of underwriting institutions such as commercial banks, the CSRC is responsible for managing the securities market and futures market, and the Ministry of Finance, as the issuer of national debt, manages the issuance and trading of national debt. Various functional departments are often uncoordinated in the management of national debt. On the one hand, there is a phenomenon of multiple supervision and repeated management in the issuance and circulation of national debt, on the other hand, it may create a regulatory vacuum in some areas, greatly reducing the regulatory efficiency of national debt. Second, the supervision system in savings bonds is not perfect, and there is no corresponding restraint means and punishment measures for the violations of underwriting institutions. The People's Bank of China dealt with the irregularities found in the supervision of government bond issuance and redemption by "ordering rectification", and the institutional rigidity obviously could not be brought into full play.

(C) backward management methods and means, reducing the quality and effectiveness of national debt supervision.

Savings bonds's issuance is underwritten by underwriting institutions, and the whole issuance process is directly undertaken by commercial banks. This distribution method determines the closure of its distribution operation. Each underwriter has its own system, and the distribution plan, amount distribution and sales outlets are decided by the underwriters themselves. The People's Bank of China can only learn about the issuance of treasury bonds within its jurisdiction through the weekly issuance reports submitted by commercial banks at the same level, and its grasp of the issuance tasks and sales situation is relatively lagging behind. It is difficult to directly intervene and supervise the specific sales process of government bonds in real time. The management mode of the People's Bank of China still stays in the post-event supervision mode, which is mainly based on field inspection and report review, and it is impossible to realize dynamic real-time management. At the same time, the relevant documents stipulate that the national debt underwriting institution shall timely submit data such as issuance tasks, issuance progress and sales to the People's Bank at the same level. However, in practice, due to the lack of effective restraint mechanism in the underwriting institution system and inconsistent data submission time, the accuracy and timeliness of data submission are low, which leads to the failure to give full play to the regulatory effectiveness of the People's Bank of China.

(D) weak management, supervision and inspection is difficult to carry out in a timely manner.

The management of national debt is a highly professional job, which requires a special supervision team and a rich knowledge reserve. However, in practice, due to the shortage of personnel, many grass-roots banks can not be fully equipped with national debt managers. Even if there are full-time national debt managers, the daily issuance organization and data submission of national debt also occupy a lot of workload, so it is difficult to carry out on-site inspection. The inspection method mainly stays in the simple form of reconciliation, and the frequency of on-site business inspection of underwriting institutions and payment outlets can not meet the regulatory requirements. On-the-spot inspection is an indispensable link in the real implementation of supervision in savings bonds. The supervision of treasury bonds over-issuance, subject use and compliance of secondary transactions can only be carried out through on-the-spot inspection, and the personnel bottleneck makes it impossible to further deepen the supervision of treasury bonds.