【英语国际】印度小额贷款出现大危机

The microlending movement that was supposed to help lift millions of people in India out of poverty has in recent weeks fallen into chaos.

Urged on by local government officials and politicians, thousands of borrowers have simply stopped paying lenders, even though they have the money. The government has begun ratcheting up restrictions, fearing that borrowers are being buried by usurious interest rates. In some cases, officials have even arrested lending agents for allegedly harassing borrowers.

Local politicians, meanwhile, have blamed dozens of suicides on microlenders and are urging borrowers not to pay back what they owe.

Though so far the backlash has been confined to a southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, what happens there is frequently a bellwether for microlending in India, and programs around the world. Hyderabad, the state capital, is home to some of the world's biggest microlenders, including SKS Microfinance Ltd., Spandana Sphoorty Financial, Basix and Share Microfin Ltd. The state accounts for about 30% of the loans for all of India, one of the world's biggest microfinance markets.

'This is potentially going to devastate lending to rural areas for a long time,' said Vikram Akula, founder and chairman of SKS Microfinance, India's largest microlender by loan volume, which recently listed its shares in India. 'We are confident that we will survive but certainly this is going change how things could and should be done.'

Microcredit is the lending of tiny amounts of money, usually less than $200, to entrepreneurs who use the loans to start or expand small businesses such as a vegetable stand or a bicycle repair shop. Most microcredit firms lend money through women's groups and reach out to borrowers who are either too far from or too poor to borrow from a bank. The repayment rate on the loans have tended to be better than that of richer borrowers. Interest rates, however, can be high, from 25% to 100% a year mostly due to the cost of administering millions of tiny loans in remote areas.

The crisis is in some ways reminiscent of recent debt problems in the U.S.. Microfinance is targeted at a population that is overlooked by the mainstream banking industry, the same social niche targeted by payday and subprime lenders in the U.S.

As the microfinance industry has grown, it has attracted international capital that has greatly boosted the size of the industry, much as payday lending and subprime soared until two years ago in the U.S. In a significant move that showed international investors interest in the industry, SKS recently sold $350 million of its shares on the Indian stock market.

But along with that has come concern among politicians, regulators -- and indeed some in the industry -- that unfettered expansion was leading to poor lending practices, multiple loans to the same borrowers, and fears of widespread repayment problems.

While they have been much in demand wherever they have been introduced as they provide a kinder, cheaper alternative to the village loan shark, some economists are skeptical whether the small loans actually help lift people out of poverty.

And in regions where there are more than one microlender competing for clients, some experts are concerned that the poor are being encouraged to take on more debt than they can bear.

So far, the repayment rate across the microlending industry has remained extremely high. But Andhra Pradesh's payment strike could presage a turn -- and put the capital that has flooded into the industry at risk. Mainstream Indian and international banks have backed the microlending industry in India with more than $4 billion of loans this year, with private-equity funds pouring more than $250 million into the industry in India last year alone.

The repayment strike is a rare black mark for an industry that has long been viewed as a social benefit. One of the industry's leaders, Mohammed Yunus of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for pioneering the system. The industry has spread across emerging Asia, Africa and South America. India, with its giant population and hundreds of millions of people living in poverty, is one of the most important markets.

The industry also was the first to reach out to those that make less than $1 a day. It had been so successful that it has spawned efforts to bring everything from insurance, to cellphones to solar lights to groceries to the poor.

Andhra Pradesh slapped new restrictions on the industry that effectively shut it down last week. While a state court order put the restrictions on hold and allowed the lenders back in the field this week, close to half of all borrowers are continuing to avoid payments, microlenders say.

State officials say they are trying to protect the poor from usurious interest rates and heavy-handed practices which they say have triggered more than 70 suicides in the state.

Microlending companies say that often where they have investigated suicides attributed to their lending, they have found that microloans were among the smallest of the many problems of the people that have killed themselves.

In Sankarampet village about 2 1/2 hours from Hyderabad, Satyama Ayrene, is still in mourning the death of her son who hanged himself. While local police say they have been told to investigate whether microdebt caused the death, Ms. Ayrene says it was the $2,200 he owned loan sharks that was bothering him, not the $220 his wife owed to a microlender.

'He did not commit suicide because of the [microloan] companies,' said Ms. Ayrene, 55 years old. 'He was burdened with loans from the local moneylenders and didn't know how to pay them back.'

Microlenders say they are being punished for the success at reaching the poor and that if the resistance continues many of them will go out of business. Many have been taking steps to create good will to try to avert the situation worsening. The biggest lenders who account for the majority of borrowing say they will cap their rates at around 24% and form a fund to help troubled borrowers reschedule their loan payments.

They say they are ready to comply with more government restrictions as long as they are given time to meet new requirements. But in the meantime, the industry has ground to a halt.

When SKS agents arrived in a village called Shanti Nagar about 150 miles from Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh, on Wednesday morning they could tell right away something was wrong. The borrowing group of 20 women was milling around the dusty village square, instead of sitting in order in a circle with their weekly payments as SKS procedure requires.

While the group wanted to pay its loans, they had been forbidden by a local political leader and their husbands, the women said.

The political leader, A. Subramanyam, arrived and told the SKS agents not to harass his neighbors.

'I told them if they don't have the money they don't have to pay,' said Mr. Subramanyam. 'I have seen them sell their wedding jewelry to pay the installments, why should they do that? No one here has prospered with these loans.'

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images全印度妇女民主联合会成员与其支持者10月报3号在印度储备银行门前抗议示威
据信曾帮助千百万印度人摆脱贫困的小额信贷运动，最近几周已陷入了混乱。

在地方政府官员和政客们的力劝下，成千上万小额贷款借款人干脆停止偿还贷款，虽然他们并非没有还钱的资金。印度政府已经加紧出台限制措施，因为它担心小额贷款借款人被高昂的利息压垮。某些情况下政府官员甚至会逮捕放贷机构的工作人员，指控他们纠缠借款人。

与此同时，地方上的政治人物则将数十起自杀案件归咎于小额贷款发放机构，并敦促借款人不要偿还自己的贷款。

虽然目前为止小额贷款引发的这些不利事件还仅出现在印度南部的安德拉邦，但在小额贷款业务领域，该邦经常是印度以及整个世界的风向标。安德拉邦海德拉巴有几家规模堪称世界之最的小额贷款机构，包括SKS Microfinance Ltd.、Spandana Sphoorty Financial、Basix和Share Microfin Ltd.。全印度约30%的小额贷款都是在这个邦发放的，而印度则是世界最大的小额金融市场之一。

SKS Microfinance是印度贷款规模最大的小额贷款机构，它不久前刚在印度国内上市。该公司创始人兼董事长阿库拉(Vikram Akula)说，这种局面有可能对向农村地区放贷造成长久的破坏；我们虽然相信公司能够生存下来，但当前局面肯定会改变我们怎样做生意以及应该如何做生意的方式。

小额贷款是发放给小企业主们的少量贷款，他们用贷到的钱创办蔬菜摊或修车铺等小企业，或扩大经营规模。小额贷款公司大多通过妇女团体放贷，获得贷款的人要么因为居住地过于偏远、要么因为太穷而无法从银行借到钱。与比他们富余的借款人相比，这些人的贷款偿还率往往还会更高些。但小额贷款的利息也很高，年息从25%到100%不等，这很大程度上是因为在边远地区管理成百上千万笔小额贷款需要很高成本。

印度这场小额贷款危机某种程度上使人想起了美国不久前发生的债务问题。小额金融服务业的目标客户是那些被主流银行业所忽视的人，而美国超短期贷款机构和次级贷款发放机构针对的也是这一人群。

随着小额金融服务业的发展，国际资本也开始插手进来，从而大大增强了这一行业的规模，这种情形很像本次金融危机发生前美国超短期贷款和次级贷款蓬勃发展的情形。SKS Microfinance最近在印度股市发行了3.5亿股股票，这一重大举动彰显了国际资本对印度小额贷款业的兴趣。

但随之而来的则是印度政界人士、监管机构以及部分小额贷款业人士的担忧，他们担心小额贷款规模不受约束的扩张将导致不负责任的放贷、大量贷款集中到同一批借款人手中以及普遍出现贷款偿还问题。

小额贷款在开展这项业务的地方一直有很强的市场需求，因为与乡村地区的高利贷相比，这种贷款利息要低些，贷款催收也要文明些，但还是有一些经济学家怀疑小额贷款是否真能帮助人们脱贫。

一些专家担心，在那些有两家以上小额贷款机构争夺客户的地方，穷人们会被鼓励举借超出其偿还能力的贷款。

到目前为止，整个小额贷款业的贷款偿还比率还是非常高的。但印度安德拉邦出现的拒还贷款问题却有可能预示着一个转折点的到来，并使那些涌入小额贷款业的资金面临风险。印度主流银行和跨国银行今年已拿出40多亿美元贷款来支持印度的小额贷款业，而私募股权基金仅去年一年就向印度的小额贷款业投入了超过2.5亿美元的资金。

小额贷款很久以来都被视为一种社会福利，安德拉邦“罢还潮”是这个行业少见的一个污点。行业领袖之一、孟加拉乡村银行(Grameen Bank)的尤努斯(Mohammed Yunus)因为开拓这一制度获得了2006年的诺贝尔和平奖。小额贷款已经遍布亚洲、非洲和南美洲的新兴市场国家。印度人口众多，贫困人口以千万计，它是小额贷款最重要的市场之一。

另外，这个行业率先接触到了每天收入一美元以下人群。它取得的巨大成功，已经促成了各种将保险、手机、太阳能灯具、杂货等等带给穷人的行动。

安德拉邦上周对这个行业实施新的限制措施，在事实上使之陷入停顿。虽然一个邦级法庭命令该邦暂停实施这些措施，并允许贷款机构在本周重新恢复业务，但据小额贷款机构说，全部借款人当中，接近一半的人还在拒绝还贷。

邦政府官员说，他们是在保护穷人免受高利贷和严厉措施的损害。据他们说，该邦已有70多人因此而自杀。

小额贷款公司说，在对那些被归罪于它们所发贷款的自杀事件展开调查之后，它们常常发现，小额贷款只是自杀者遇到的很多问题中最不严重的问题之一。

在离海德拉巴约两个半小时车程的Sankarampet村，Satyama Ayrene仍在悲悼上吊自杀的儿子。当地警方说，他们已被告知要调查这起死亡事件是不是小额贷款造成的，但Ayrene说，让儿子烦恼的是他欠高利贷商的2,200美元，而不是他妻子欠一家小额贷款商的220美元。

55岁的Ayrene说，他不是因为这些小额贷款公司的原因而自杀的，他欠上了本地放债人的钱，不知道该怎么偿还。

小额贷款公司说，它们是因为成功接触到穷人而受到了惩罚，如果抵制行动继续进行下去，很多公司将会关门歇业。许多公司都在采取措施营造和谐氛围，努力避免局势恶化。发放了多数贷款的几家最大贷款商说，它们将把利率控制在24%左右，并成立一只基金来帮助困难借款人重新制定还款时间表。

这些公司说，只要给出时间来满足新的要求，它们就愿意遵守政府的限制措施。但在此同时，整个行业已经陷入了停顿。

安德拉邦首府海德拉巴约150英里外有一个名为Shanti Nagar的村庄，当SKS的人员周三早上来到这里的时候，他们马上就可以发现出了问题。那个借款团体的20名妇女在村子灰扑扑的坝子里闲逛，而不是按SKS流程所要求的那样，拿着各自每周要还的钱款有序地围坐在一起。

虽然这个团体想还掉贷款，但妇女们说，当地一个政治领导人和她们的丈夫不准她们还钱。

这位领导人叫A. Subramanyam，他前来告诉SKS的人员，叫他们不要骚扰他的邻居。

Subramanyam说，我跟她们讲，如果没有钱就不必还款；我曾看到她们卖掉结婚饰品来偿还分期付款，她们怎么能这样做呢？这里没有哪个拿着这些贷款发了财。