A few days ago, Hu Wenhui, deputy director of the State Intellectual Property Office, introduced at the press conference of the State Council Information Office that the registered amount of patent and trademark pledge financing in 2023 will be 8,539900 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 754%。In recent years, intellectual property pledge financing such as patents and trademarks has become one of the important ways for science and technology enterprises to revitalize intangible assets and enhance the momentum of innovation and development. Generally speaking, science and technology enterprises have the characteristics of "light assets, heavy investment, high growth, and strong volatility", and due to the lack of collateral required for traditional bank credit, they often encounter difficult and expensive financing in the financing process. How to solve the financing difficulties of science and technology enterprises? How to meet the financing needs of technology-based enterprises at different stages of development?
Strengthen the guidance of regulatory policies.
As the first of the five major articles proposed by the first financial work conference, the importance of science and technology finance is self-evident. To vigorously develop science and technology finance and help the development of science and technology enterprises, it is urgent to improve and effectively supervise and guide the policy.
Liang Si, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute, said that to strengthen the policy to support the development of science and technology enterprises, on the one hand, it can build a service platform to provide assistance for coordinating the entry of resources from all parties and achieving collaborative development; On the other hand, it will help accelerate the creation of an economic growth path that is more in line with the reality of innovation and development, and solidly help the innovation and development of science and technology enterprises.
A few days ago, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Financial Services of the Whole Life Cycle of Science and Technology Enterprises". Experts said that the "Notice" put forward requirements for doing a good job in innovative technology financial services, which pointed out the direction for local financial regulatory departments to strengthen the financial services of science and technology enterprises. The relevant person in charge of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration said that the local financial supervision bureaus should clarify the responsible departments and division of responsibilities of science and technology finance, strengthen overall coordination, and consolidate responsibilities at all levels. It is necessary to combine the actual situation of scientific and technological resources in the jurisdiction, refine the implementation of policies and measures according to local conditions, and effectively increase the financing support for scientific and technological enterprises.
In recent years, local financial regulatory authorities have continued to improve the financial services of the whole life cycle of science and technology enterprises, so as to better support the development of science and technology industry, especially to promote the development of private small and medium-sized science and technology enterprises, continue to make efforts and innovate services from different fields, and further improve the quality and efficiency of financial services technology enterprises.
In order to solve the industry barriers between banking institutions and technology-based enterprises and improve the effectiveness of financial services, the Shaanxi Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration has explored and established two advisory mechanisms in 2023. The first is to guide the pilot institutions of banks under its jurisdiction to set up "technology +" financial consultants to provide targeted financial services for technology-based enterprises. As of the end of 2023, the relevant pilot banks have granted a total of 24.1 billion yuan. The second is to cooperate with the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education to establish a "science and technology +" expert advisory mechanism, set up a scientific and technological innovation expert database, introduce university experts to help banking and insurance institutions understand and evaluate science and technology enterprises, and accelerate the efficient docking of financial supply and enterprise demand. As of the end of 2023, the balance of loans to science and technology enterprises in Shaanxi Province is 2,3667.1 billion yuan, a new high since statistics, a year-on-year increase of 4827%, higher than the growth rate of various loans in the same period of 3874 percentage points.
In addition, since 2023, the Shanghai Supervision Bureau of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration has continuously improved institutional and mechanism innovation, built and improved the system of science and technology finance, and carried out a series of explorations and innovations in key areas. For example, the Shanghai Regulatory Bureau explores the science and technology financial service system linked by "stocks, loans, debts and insurance", guides insurance institutions to launch the first set of insurance services such as the first set and the community, encourages insurance funds to actively invest in science and technology, and provides a full range of financial service solutions for science and technology enterprises.
Li Guangzi, director of the banking research office of the Institute of Finance and Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the risk of scientific and technological innovation activities in the early stage is relatively high, and the risk of scientific and technological innovation activities in the earlier seed stage is the highest. At this time, it is very necessary to strengthen the policy guidance of the first and regulatory authorities, and give full play to the leading role of policy funds in supporting social capital in the field of scientific and technological innovation. With the decline of the risk of scientific and technological innovation activities, bank credit funds can gradually enter.
Solve the mortgage financing puzzle.
Unlike traditional industries, most of these enterprises have light assets such as intellectual property rights and patented technologies, which pose great challenges to the credit method of banks relying on collateral, and the difficulty and high cost of financing plague the sustainable development of such enterprises.
Although the intellectual property pledge financing business of banking institutions has achieved certain results in recent years, there are still some factors restricting the development of such business in practice. Li Guangzi said that accurate valuation of the collateral is a prerequisite for carrying out intellectual property pledge financing. It is very difficult to accurately assess the value of intellectual property in all its forms and complexities. Moreover, the intellectual property itself is very volatile, which also poses a great challenge to its value assessment. In addition, once the borrower defaults, the financial institution will face the risk of disposing of the IP as collateral, making it difficult to realize the IP.
In order to resolve the difficulties in intellectual property financing of science and technology enterprises, at present, only by accelerating the formation of an effective collaborative linkage mechanism can the three parties of "government, bank and enterprise" resolve the financing risks of such enterprises and reduce the financing costs of enterprises. From the perspective of banking practice, CCB broke through the traditional evaluation system of relying solely on the "three tables" of balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement, and innovatively launched the fourth table of "scientific and technological innovation evaluation", "Science and Technology Innovation Table", to evaluate the continuous innovation ability of enterprises from multiple dimensions such as technology transformation ability, stability and intensity of R&D investment, and carry out differentiated credit enhancement support, so as to realize the realization of "patents" without looking at "bricks".
In this regard, Li Guangzi said that it is difficult to solve the difficulty of intellectual property pledge financing in the short term, on the one hand, it is necessary to establish a risk-sharing mechanism for intellectual property pledge financing, and it can be considered to establish a guarantee or an innovative scientific and technological innovation platform by the first capital to share the risks arising from the qualified intellectual property pledge financing carried out by financial institutions, so as to improve the enthusiasm of financial institutions to carry out intellectual property pledge financing business; On the other hand, the risk tolerance can also be appropriately improved for intellectual property pledge financing carried out by financial institutions. In the long run, it is still necessary to focus on improving the intellectual property trading platform, establishing an effective intellectual property trading market, continuously improving market liquidity and pricing accuracy, and providing guarantees for the value assessment and disposal of intellectual property rights.
Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of Zhaolian, said that financial institutions should accelerate the exploration of patents and trademarks as the basis for credit, and vigorously develop intellectual property pledge financing. In addition, it is necessary to further emancipate the mind, stimulate the potential of institutional innovation, support banks and other institutions to set up investment subsidiaries, and carry out investment-loan linkage business more effectively through the linkage between investment subsidiaries and parent banks, so as to promote the innovation and development of intellectual property pledge financing business.
Create diversified and accurate services.
It is very important to guide long-term "patient capital" to accurately match science and technology enterprises at different stages of development. The "Notice" proposes to provide diversified financial services covering the whole life cycle of enterprises according to the needs of technology-based enterprises at different stages of development, such as start-up stage, growth stage and maturity stage.
The traditional credit business model emphasizes mortgage and guarantee, and emphasizes the security of funds. However, science and technology innovation enterprises usually have the characteristics of long investment cycle and high returns, especially in different periods, science and technology innovation enterprises have significantly different requirements for capital scale, which does not match the characteristics of traditional credit. Liang Si believes that especially in the start-up and growth stage, science and technology enterprises lack sufficient physical assets, and most of them take intellectual property rights as their main assets, and the return on investment is low in the short term. Therefore, science and technology enterprises need different types of financial services in different growth periods, or multiple types of services are superimposed to support.
In recent years, combined with the characteristics and needs of different stages of development of technology-based enterprises, many banking institutions have created credit services covering the whole life cycle of technology-based enterprises, and some banking institutions have also innovated and deepened the "bank-tax interaction" mechanism at the stages of enterprise establishment and technology research and development, so as to broaden the financing channels of enterprises. In Nanning, Guangxi, Guangxi Rural Credit Cooperatives and the tax department have realized the seamless connection between tax credit and financing credit through "bank-tax interaction", helping science and technology enterprises to strengthen the capital chain. "The company has a large investment in machinery and equipment, a long cycle, and a large pressure on capital turnover, and we have obtained a loan of more than 30 million yuan from Guangxi Rural Credit Cooperatives through the 'silver tax interaction', and the development of the enterprise is more confident. Guangxi Hongfa Heavy Industry Machinery *** financial director Ren Xianen said.
Generally speaking, the risk of scientific and technological innovation activities in the early stages such as the start-up stage and the growth stage is higher, and the risks faced after the mature stage will be much smaller. Li Guangzi said that from the perspective of financial supply, the risk appetite of different types of funds is different. In contrast, the risk appetite of bank credit funds is lower than that of equity funds. In addition to financing needs, other aspects of science and technology innovation activities in different life cycles are also different, such as investment advisory, risk management, etc. Therefore, financial institutions can improve the pertinence and service efficiency of financial services by exploring and referring to the credit data of various financial entities and combining the financial demand characteristics of scientific and technological innovation activities in different life cycles.
In addition, under the premise of controllable risks, banking institutions should study and design differentiated and characteristic technology credit services according to the operating characteristics of technology enterprises. Liang Si believes that banking institutions should speed up the construction of a new credit approval model that is consistent with the intrinsic characteristics of specialized and special new enterprises. According to the abundant characteristics of "soft assets" of science and technology enterprises, we will promote movable property pledges, accounts receivable pledges, etc., and develop exclusive financial products for specialized, special and new enterprises. According to the different needs of different enterprises for funds, accurate portraits and customized financial products are developed. (Economic ** reporter Wang Baohui).