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The Housing Savings Bank is a financial enterprise specializing in real estate deposit, credit, and settlement businesses. China's first housing savings bank was the Yantai Housing Savings Bank, which was established in October 1987 and was formed by people from the relevant units. The business scope is: handle deposits and loans in the production and circulation of housing and other real estate, operate residential and other real estate investment and development, handle housing voucher settlement, special savings deposits for residential houses, and long-term low-interest mortgage loans for personal housing purchases, issue housing bonds, Various businesses entrusted by other banks. The bank implements independent accounting, independent operation, self-financing, self-risk, and self-balancing. ^[1]

Housing Savings Bank

The Housing Savings Bank is a financial enterprise specializing in real estate deposit, credit, and settlement businesses. China's first housing savings bank was the Yantai Housing Savings Bank, which was established in October 1987 and was formed by people from the relevant units. The business scope is: handle deposits and loans in the production and circulation of housing and other real estate, operate residential and other real estate investment and development, handle housing voucher settlement, special savings deposits for residential houses, and long-term low-interest mortgage loans for personal housing purchases, issue housing bonds, Various businesses entrusted by other banks. The bank implements independent accounting, independent operation, self-financing, self-risk, and self-balancing. ^[1]

The China-German Housing Savings Bank, the first housing savings bank established in accordance with an internationally accepted operating model, officially opened in Tianjin on February 15, 2004. The bank will initially conduct business in Tianjin and gradually promote it nationwide.

The Sino-German Housing Savings Bank is a joint venture established by China Construction Bank and Germany's Schweizerbauer Housing Savings Bank, with a registered capital of 150 million yuan. China Construction Bank holds 75.1% of the shares, and Germany's Schwebihauer Housing Savings Bank holds 24.9%.

The housing savings bank is actually nothing new in our country. In Yantai, Shandong, and Bengbu, Anhui, a housing savings bank has appeared in the past, but they have disappeared due to restructuring, rename, and transformation. The reason is due to China's unique housing credit market environment.

In the mid-1980s, China set up housing savings banks in Yantai and Bengbu, respectively, to deal with policy-based financial services such as housing fund collection, credit, and settlement supporting the housing reform. Since its establishment, Yantai Housing Savings Bank's average annual return to shareholders is 13% -15%; while Bengbu Housing Savings Bank's asset scale and deposit and loan balances have been growing at a rate of more than 20% per year.

However, in the 1990s, after the establishment of the provident fund system in China, the function of the housing savings bank was basically replaced by the housing provident fund management center. In 2000, the Bengbu Housing and Savings Bank was merged by the local city credit union. In 2003, the Yantai Housing Savings Bank was renamed Hengfeng Bank and became the 11th joint-stock commercial bank in China.

The reason why the housing savings bank is making a comeback is that the current coverage of housing provident fund accounts for only 32% of urban employees. A large number of non-state-owned enterprises and individuals, such as private enterprises, individual industrial and commercial workers, employees of some foreign-funded enterprises and foreign-funded institutions in China, do not enjoy the housing provident fund policy. The operation mode of the Housing Savings Bank can just make up for this deficiency, and can provide low-interest loans to customers who need to buy a house outside the system.