香港零售貸款業(yè)小額貸款的大抱負(fù)

The pungent smell of fried squid on sticks wafts intothe chill humid air of Hong Kong’s Sheung Wandistrict. Here, in a nondescript of¬fice buildingalongside traditional Chinese medicine shops sellingdeer horn and dried caterpillar, WeLabco-founderSimon Loong hopes to play a significant role indragging Hong Kong’s retail lending sector into thedigital era.

香港上環(huán)(Sheung Wan)寒冷潮濕的空氣中飄著一股炸魷魚串的刺鼻氣味，賣鹿茸和干蟲草的傳統(tǒng)中藥店旁坐落著一棟不起眼的辦公樓。在這棟樓里辦公的WeLab聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人龍沛智(Simon Loong)期望，自己的公司能在引領(lǐng)香港零售貸款業(yè)進(jìn)入數(shù)字時(shí)代方面發(fā)揮重要作用。

The target market is small to midsized borrowers, who have traditionally had few sources fromwhich to obtain funds conveniently and affordably in Hong Kong. Even online applications tocommercial banks can involve a branch visit, while micro financing companies, which lend tolow-income consumers, charge high rates to compensate for the inevitably less rigorouscredit checks and higher default rates.

該公司瞄準(zhǔn)的市場是中小借貸者。在香港，這類借貸者一向沒有什么渠道方便而廉價(jià)地獲取資金。即使是向商業(yè)銀行在線申請貸款，可能也需要去分支行面談，而面向低收入顧客放貸的小額融資公司，則收取高息來彌補(bǔ)肯定不那么嚴(yán)格的信用審核和更高的違約率帶來的損失。

WeLab aims to be faster, cheaper and more convenient. “Internet finance is about providingefficient alternatives,” rather than identifying “new needs”, says Mr Loong. It has particularusers in mind: “We design our product for tech-savvy young consumers.” These are peoplewho want to avoid having to go to a bank branch and to avoid being subjected to cross-selling.

WeLab的目標(biāo)是更快、更廉價(jià)、更方便。龍沛智表示，“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)金融的宗旨在于提供高效的替代品”，而不是甄別“新需求”。它著眼于特定的用戶群體。“我們設(shè)計(jì)的產(chǎn)品是面向精通科技的年輕顧客。”這類顧客不想為了申貸而不得不跑銀行網(wǎng)點(diǎn)，也不想成為交叉銷售(cross-selling)的對象。

A former commercial banker with 15 years’ experience at Citibank and Standard Chartered, MrLoong set up WeLab in 2013. The smart-suited, soft-spoken CEO is speaking in a small, glasswalled room in a corner of the company’s 2,000 sq ft head office, that barely fits a desk andtwo chairs. Sitting next to a window covered with notes scribbled in marker pen, he talkspersuasively about his desire to offer “attractive alternatives” to borrowers, especially thosewho struggle to obtain funds from lenders that use traditional risk-checking tools.

龍沛智曾是一名商業(yè)銀行家，在花旗銀行(Citibank)和渣打銀行(Standard Chartered)總共效力了15年，他在2013年創(chuàng)立了WeLab。這名穿著得體、說話溫和的WeLab行政總裁，在一個(gè)玻璃墻小房間里接受采訪，這個(gè)房間位于該公司占地2000平方英尺的總部辦公室的一角，面積小得勉強(qiáng)放下一張桌子和兩把椅子。他的座位旁有一扇窗戶，窗上貼滿了便條，上面用記號筆龍飛鳳舞地寫著什么。他令人信服地談到，他渴望將“有吸引力的替代品”提供給借貸者，尤其是那些很難從使用傳統(tǒng)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)評估工具的貸款機(jī)構(gòu)獲得資金的借貸者。

WeLab has developed its own software, WeDefend, designed to enable rapid creditassessment without compromising on accurate pricing. Mr Loong is reluctant to revealdetails, but he does say that WeDefend relies on information provided by the customer as wellas data published online.

WeLab開發(fā)了自有軟件WeDefend，該軟件旨在幫助WeLab在不影響準(zhǔn)確定價(jià)的前提下快速完成信用評估。龍沛智不愿透露細(xì)節(jié)，但他明確表示W(wǎng)eDefend依賴于顧客提供的信息以及網(wǎng)上公布的數(shù)據(jù)。

For instance, information garnered from search engines such as Google and Baidu can help toverify identity. Still, weeding out bad apples is not as simple as counting Facebook friends, hesays: “Thieves and good people both have friends.” If a customer is reluctant to sharepersonal information, “they don’t get the money”. WeLend, the flagship product, has so farexperienced no fraud on its loan book, although it has encountered fraudulent applicants.

例如，從搜索引擎如谷歌(Google)和百度收集的信息能夠幫助驗(yàn)證身份。不過，篩除“爛蘋果”可不像統(tǒng)計(jì)Facebook好友那么簡單，龍沛智表示： “盜賊也好，好人也罷，都是有朋友的。”如果顧客不愿分享個(gè)人信息，“他們就得不到錢”。該公司的旗艦產(chǎn)品WeLend雖然遇到過不誠實(shí)的申請者，但到目前為止從未被成功騙貸。

In the early days WeLab itself struggled to persuade service providers of its legitimacy: “HongKong is unused to start-ups,” Mr Loong says. Without a history landlords were reluctant toprovide premises or banks to open ac¬counts. “You need a one-year trading record, but howcan you [get started and] grow without these things?” Mr Loong says.

營業(yè)初期，WeLab花了很大力氣來說服服務(wù)提供商相信該公司有存在的道理。龍沛智說：“香港還不習(xí)慣于接納創(chuàng)業(yè)型企業(yè)”。如果一家企業(yè)沒有營業(yè)記錄，房東不愿向它提供辦公場所，銀行也不愿為它開立賬戶。“你得有一年的營業(yè)記錄。但沒有上面這些東西，你怎能(起步并)成長起來呢?”

Funding was not such a problem. The first round of capital raising in 2013 garnered $2m fromfriends and family, beating the target of $1.3m. Then last year some big name investorsinjected $20m in equity: Tom Group, a Hong Kong listed media company that is 36.7 per cent-owned by Li Ka-shing’s flagship conglomerates Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong, andSilicon Valley’s Sequoia Capital were among them.

資金方面倒沒有遇到這樣的問題。第一輪融資是在2013年，從朋友和家人那里融來了200萬美元，比130萬美元的目標(biāo)要高。接著在去年，一些大名鼎鼎的投資者通過入股注資了2000萬美元，其中包括TOM集團(tuán)(TomGroup)和硅谷的紅杉資本(Sequoia Capital)。TOM集團(tuán)是一家在港上市的媒體公司，李嘉誠(Li Ka-shing)的旗艦企業(yè)集團(tuán)長江和記實(shí)業(yè)(CK Hutchison)持有該公司36.7%的股份。

The journey to WeLab’s conception began in a Stanford Graduate School of Businessdormitory room in 2010. Mr Loong had taken time to help his fiancée settle in for her MBA. Ashe flicked through her coursework, he realised further study might benefit him too. Herequested a sabbatical and enrolled for a Masters in Science and Management, also at Stanford,relocating from his home in Hong Kong.

WeLab構(gòu)想的形成過程始于2010年斯坦福大學(xué)商學(xué)院(Stanford Graduate School of Business)的一間宿舍。當(dāng)時(shí)龍沛智的未婚妻來這里讀MBA，龍沛智在幫她整理宿舍。他快速翻閱了下未婚妻的課程作業(yè)，意識到進(jìn)一步的學(xué)習(xí)可能對自己也有幫助。于是他申請了學(xué)術(shù)休假，離開香港的家搬到這里，進(jìn)入斯坦福大學(xué)攻讀科學(xué)與管理碩士學(xué)位。

The course changed his understanding of finance as well as his own ambitions. “I discoveredhow small my world was. It was just people who wanted to move money around and that’s it.”His studies introduced him to professionals from a variety of backgrounds and in¬spired him tolook beyond a conventional career in finance. Becoming CEO of a bank — the “best I could do,if all the stars had realigned” — no longer seemed like “fun”. His studies had highlighted thatfinancial services were ripe for disruption by technology: the crisis of 2008 had presented anopportunity for new models of consumer banking. He set about launching WeLab.

課程改變了他對金融和自身抱負(fù)的理解。“我發(fā)現(xiàn)我的圈子太小了，就是些想推動(dòng)資金轉(zhuǎn)來轉(zhuǎn)去的人，然后就沒別的了。”這段學(xué)習(xí)讓他認(rèn)識了各種背景的專業(yè)人士，并鼓舞他將目光投向常規(guī)的金融職業(yè)生涯之外。在他看來，在一家銀行作首席執(zhí)行官的夢想似乎已不再有趣(他以前曾認(rèn)為，“如果發(fā)生奇跡，我最想做的就是成為一家銀行的首席執(zhí)行官”)。這段學(xué)習(xí)讓他深刻意識到，用科技去顛覆金融服務(wù)業(yè)的時(shí)機(jī)已經(jīng)成熟：2008年的危機(jī)提供了一個(gè)建立消費(fèi)銀行業(yè)務(wù)新模式的機(jī)會。他開始著手創(chuàng)立WeLab。

Its growth has been encouraging, he says. In the fourth quarter of last year, loan applicationsat WeLend quadrupled year on year. By mid-April 2015, WeLend had received re¬quests for atotal of nearly $170m, up 40 per cent from the end of 2014; the average loan is about$10,000, the maximum $65,000.

他表示，WeLab的發(fā)展一直令人鼓舞。去年第四季度，WeLend的貸款申請同比翻了兩番。到2015年4月中旬，WeLend收到的申請額總計(jì)近1.7億美元，相比2014年底增長了40%;貸款額平均為1萬美元左右，最大一筆為6.5萬美元。

Mr Loong declines to reveal the size of the loan book, but as WeLab’s confidence in its creditrisk evaluation has improved, approvals have risen from 10-15 per cent of applications to 20-25 per cent. This is un¬like¬ly to rise much more: taking on riskier customers might need debtcollection, raising costs and altering the online-only model.

龍沛智不愿透露貸款賬目的大小，但隨著WeLab對其信用風(fēng)險(xiǎn)評估的信心逐步提升，批貸比例已從10%到15%升至20%到25%。這個(gè)比例不太可能再上升很多：接受風(fēng)險(xiǎn)更高的顧客可能需要追債、提高成本和改變只做線上業(yè)務(wù)的模式。

Hong Kong has demonstrated the efficacy of WeLab’s credit assessment technology, so thecompany is expanding to mainland China. The mainland site, Wolaidai (“I will lend”), operates apeer-to-peer model, which links small scale lenders and borrowers, limiting WeLab’s capitalcommitment to China’s $40bn unregulated online lending market. Still, risk assessmentremains rigorous to ensure healthy growth: “The platform will get destroyed if individuallenders are blowing up,” says Mr Loong.

WeLab信用評估技術(shù)的有效性已在香港得到證明，因此該公司正將業(yè)務(wù)擴(kuò)大到中國內(nèi)地。該公司在內(nèi)地的網(wǎng)站“我來貸”(wolaidai.com)是基于 P2P模式，為小額貸款人和小額借款人牽線搭橋，這將WeLab的出資承諾限定在了內(nèi)地的400億美元無監(jiān)管在線借貸市場。盡管如此，該公司仍堅(jiān)持嚴(yán)格的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)評估，以確保能夠健康發(fā)展。龍沛智表示：“如果個(gè)人貸款者搞砸了，這個(gè)平臺也會完蛋。”

In order to test its credit assessment technology on a homogeneous group, Wolaidai limitedits initial foray to student loans of no more than Rmb6,000 (about $965). One advantage ofthis group, says Mr Loong, is that the students have “a lot of data online”; a maximum 12-month term also ensured that repayment became due before graduation.

為了測試其針對某一同質(zhì)群體的信用評估技術(shù)，“我來貸”將最初的業(yè)務(wù)限定為助學(xué)貸款，每筆最多6000元人民幣(約合965美元)。龍沛智表示，這個(gè)群體的一大優(yōu)勢是，學(xué)生們有“大量的在線數(shù)據(jù)”;最長12個(gè)月的還款期限也確保了學(xué)生畢業(yè)前要還清貸款。

Starting in Guangdong, Wolaidai has now expanded beyond students, and Mr Loong expectsthe China loan book to surpass that of Hong Kong within months. About 70 of the company’s100 staff are in mainland China, with the rest in Hong Kong and India.

“我來貸”在廣東起步，現(xiàn)在的服務(wù)對象已不僅限于學(xué)生。龍沛智預(yù)期該公司在中國內(nèi)地的貸款額會在數(shù)月內(nèi)超越香港。該公司的100名員工有近70名在中國內(nèi)地，其余在香港和印度。

Wolaidai is developing new growth op¬portunities. Last month, it launched a website withChinese smartphone manufacturer Coolpad to facilitate instalment payments for mobile phonepurchases. Aware of the value of “owning” the customer, WeLab does not simply provide creditchecking software, the site is co-branded and the revenues are shared with the vendorpartner.

“我來貸”正在拓展新的增長機(jī)會。今年3月，它推出了與中國智能手機(jī)制造商酷派(Coolpad)合建的一個(gè)網(wǎng)站，方便購買手機(jī)的用戶分期付款。WeLab認(rèn)識到了“擁有”顧客的價(jià)值，它除了提供信用評估軟件外，還為該網(wǎng)站冠以聯(lián)合品牌，收入則與供貨商合作伙伴分享。

Back in WeLab’s Hong Kong neighbourhood, the traditional Chinese medicine shops are beingreplaced on the fringes by French cafés and American diners. Mr Loong will be hoping WeLabcan have a similar transformative impact on traditional banking services.

回過頭來看看WeLab香港總部所在的社區(qū)，街角的傳統(tǒng)中藥店正被法式咖啡館和美式小餐館取代。龍沛智肯定希望WeLab能對傳統(tǒng)銀行業(yè)服務(wù)產(chǎn)生類似的革命性影響。

Hiring: The skills puzzle

招聘：技能拼圖

Finding staff has been one of WeLab’s big challenges. Finance professionals, the earliestrecruits, were sceptical about leaving their secure roles in big organisations, so coaxing the firstemployees to join required a lot of persuasion, including sharing equity, says Simon Loong,who would not disclose the size of his own stake.

招兵買馬一直是WeLab面臨的一大挑戰(zhàn)。龍沛智表示，該公司要招的第一批人，也就是那些金融專業(yè)人士，對離開他們在大公司的安穩(wěn)位子加入該公司持懷疑態(tài)度，所以勸誘這批人加入要做大量的說服工作，包括分給他們WeLab的股份。龍沛智不愿透露自己持有多少股份。

In addition, WeLab could not find enough professionals with the right balance of finance andtechnology skills. After the first locally recruited technology partner did not work out, WeLabhired a chief technology officer from Singapore and programmers in India.

此外，WeLab找不到足夠多的、金融和技術(shù)兩方面技能都不錯(cuò)的專業(yè)人才。由于在香港當(dāng)?shù)卣械降氖讉€(gè)技術(shù)合伙人不太理想，WeLab從新加坡聘請了一名首席技術(shù)官，在印度招聘了程序員。

In the early days, quarterly trips to Hong Kong helped the India team to integrate with the restof the company. But later, weekly trips for the Singapore chief technology officer took their tolland the role has now been split between a head of technology in Hong Kong and another inChina.

一開始，這些人每季度到香港出差一次，這有助于印度團(tuán)隊(duì)融入整個(gè)公司。但后來，新加坡的首席技術(shù)官每周一次的出差讓公司付出了不小的成本，該崗位的職責(zé)現(xiàn)在被分為兩半，由香港的一名技術(shù)主管和中國內(nèi)地的一名技術(shù)主管分別負(fù)責(zé)。

Mr Loong says one seasoned equity investor advised him: “You don’t always find the perfectpiece of the puzzle first time.”

龍沛智表示，一名股票投資老手曾勸他道：“你不總是一下子就能找到那塊最合適的拼圖零片。