Companies in China are complaining that they're seeing less cash, and instead are getting paid in acceptance drafts, a type of virtual currency. It's not a new problem.

中国企业现在抱怨手中的现金变少了，取而代之的是承兑汇票，这个问题由来已久。

In the late nineties and early 2000s, Beijing bailed out the banks after they got choked up by massive piles of nonperforming loans. But at the same time, corporate China -- then dominated by state firms -- was similarly frustrated by what was referred to as triangular debt. That meant that when company A couldn't pay company B for goods it had bought, company B wouldn't be able to pay company C, which in turn couldn't pay company A. In reality, the debt chains were much longer, but with the same effect. No one was getting paid in cash, and eventually the banks absorbed the debt.

上世纪90年代末和本世纪初，中国政府对背负巨额不良贷款的银行业实施救助，但当时，以国有公司为主的中国企业一样面临三角债的困扰。所谓三角债，就是指A公司无力向B公司付款，导致B公司无力向C公司付款，C公司反过来又无法结清对A公司的欠帐。在现实中，这种债务链条要长得多，但效果是一样的。没有人能拿到现金，最后只能靠银行消化这些债务。

Commercial and bank acceptance drafts 'were the currency of triangular debt in the bad old days,' said David Blair, managing director at Acarate Consulting in Singapore. Now based in Singapore, Mr. Blair worked for 20 years in corporate treasury in China, including a stint between 1995 and 2004 when Beijing was working out its debt problems. 'Once you are stuck with a stack of paper of dubious quality, the best way to get rid of it is to pass it on to your suppliers. Welcome to the merry-go-round!'

Acarate Consulting驻新加坡的董事总经理布莱尔(David Blair)说，过去三角债盛行的时候，商业和银行承兑汇票就等于是货币。布莱尔在中国企业财务领域工作了20年，见证过1995年至2004年中国政府对债务问题的处理。他说，一旦被迫接受了一大堆质量可疑的票据，最好的摆脱方法就是转给你的供应商，这是一个恶性循环。

Mr. Blair said that back then fraud was a major issue. The bills, which are just slips of paper that don't have the built-in security features of modern currency, are easy to copy ( here's what they look like). About five years ago the central bank introduced electronic drafts as a way to combat counterfeits, but paper bills still make up the lion's share of drafts.

布莱尔表示，那时候票据欺诈是主要问题，当时票据都只是纸条而已，没有现代货币的防伪技术，伪造起来很容易。大约五年前，中国央行推出电子承兑汇票，试图杜绝造价现象，但纸质票据仍占一大部分。

The use of acceptance drafts eased over time, but it has remained a major feature of China's economy.

随着时间的推移，承兑汇票的使用减少了，但它依然是中国经济的一个主要特色。

For banks, there are some real advantages to issuing acceptances rather than making loans. Firstly, banks are constrained to lending out only 75% of their deposit base, a level a number of banks are already very close to. Acceptances aren't counted as loans unless a bank agrees to exchange them for cash before maturity, typically for an amount less that the bill's face value, as process known as discounting.

对银行来说，发行承兑汇票比起发放贷款有一些很实在的好处。首先，银行放贷要受限制，只能发放存款基数的75%，而很多银行的存贷比已十分接近这个水平。承兑汇票不算贷款，除非银行同意在汇票到期前以低于面值的价格提前兑付现金，这个过程被称作贴现。

Discount rates are pretty low, currently hovering around the central bank's benchmark for one-year loans of 6%. That's enough to deter a lot of companies that are already dealing with razor thin margins -- although they'll do it when they need cash to pay wages or utility bills. Banks themselves, when called upon to discount a bill, often try to move it off their books as quickly as possible. A few years ago they were actively stuffing wealth management products with discounted acceptance drafts, until the banking regulator stepped in to say they couldn't do it anymore. These days, there's an active interbank market for acceptances, with large banks selling acceptance drafts to small banks which still have room to lend, and are hungry for exposure to the quality customers large banks have but small banks don't have access to.

贴现率很低，目前在中国央行一年期贷款基准利率6%左右徘徊。对很多利润极其微薄的公司来说，这样的贴现率足以让他们却步。但当这些公司需要现金来支付工资或水电费时，它们就不得不将承兑汇票贴现。当银行接到承兑汇票贴现申请时，它们往往会尽快把汇票从账簿上抹去。几年前，银行一度非常踊跃地将贴现承兑汇票打包到理财产品中，这种做法后来被银行监管机构叫停。现在则出现了一个活跃的银行间承兑汇票市场，大银行通过这个市场将承兑汇票出售给仍有放贷额度且渴望接触优质客户的小银行。优质客户一般为大银行所把持，小银行没有机会接触到他们。

Banks also like acceptance drafts because not only are they a way to extend credit without using cash, but they're also a way to pull in cash, something that's become all the more important in recent years as banks compete with the emergence of trust companies and wealth management products for savers' yuan. As security against writing an acceptance bill, banks not only charge a fee but also require their client to deposit with the bank a certain amount of money. Large state-owned firms typically have scope to negotiate with banks over just how much they need to deposit, but smaller firms are often called upon to deposit up to 50% of the face value of the draft. So not only do bills not inject cash into the economy, they actually drain cash.

银行也乐于开立承兑汇票，因为这样做可以在不动用现金的情况下提供信贷，而且也是吸收现金的一种方式。近年来，面对来自信托和理财产品的竞争，揽储对银行来说显得越发重要。作为安全措施，银行在开立承兑汇票时不仅要收取费用，还要求客户在银行中存放一定金额的存款。这种情况下企业应该在银行存放多少资金，大型国有企业通常有协商的余地，但中小企业往往被要求在银行存放多达相当于承兑汇票面值50%的存款。这样看来，银行开立承兑汇票不仅不会向经济注入资金，实际上还会从实体经济中抽走资金。

Acceptance drafts are not just used to support trade finance or companies' working capital needs. They also get used for investment purposes and for speculation. A company can take an acceptance draft and rather than use it to pay a supplier, might choose to take it to an underground lender and discount it immediately. They can then take that money and invest it in a trust product, which typically offer interest rates upwards to 10%, well above the discount on their acceptance draft.

承兑汇票不仅被用来支持贸易融资或满足企业的营运资本需求，还被用于满足投资目的以及投机。一家公司在得到承兑汇票后，可能会选择立即去地下钱庄贴现手中的汇票，而不是用它来支付供应商货款。然后，企业可能会把这笔资金用来投资信托产品。信托产品的利率通常高达10%，远高于承兑汇票的贴现率。

Even as circulation of acceptance drafts has accelerated, with companies using them more often, growth in the issuance of acceptance drafts by banks slowed last year. That could be in part because banks are no longer willing to fund such speculation, but also because they're growing wary of default risks. In some parts of the country banks are asking that a third party guarantee a draft before issuing one.

虽然近年来企业使用承兑汇票的情况越来越多，承兑汇票的流通速度也在加快，但去年银行承兑汇票的发行增速有所放缓。这可能是因为，一方面银行不再愿意为这种投机行为提供资金，另一方面银行越来越警惕违约风险。现在，在中国部分地区，银行在开立承兑汇票时会要求第三方提供担保。

But companies need banks to not grow too cautious. While companies don't like using them, acceptance drafts are a key factor that keeps the economy moving when cash is scarce.

但企业希望银行不要太过谨慎。虽然企业并不喜欢使用承兑汇票，但在现金稀缺的当下，承兑汇票是保持经济运转的一个重要因素。