金融科技对农村商业银行绩效的影响:“契机”还是“阻力”——以江苏省为例

“Opportunity”or“Obstacle”? The Impact of Fintech on the Performance of Rural Commercial Banks:An Example from Jiangsu Province

金融科技重塑了金融市场竞争秩序和格局,有望成为中国县域金融转型和农村普惠金融改革的重要驱动力。本文基于江苏省57家农村商业银行2014-2020年的面板数据,运用Python网络爬虫技术和文本挖掘法构建县域金融科技指数,考察了金融科技对农村商业银行支农绩效和经营绩效的影响及其作用机理。研究结果表明:金融科技对农村商业银行的支农绩效和经营绩效产生负面冲击,这种负面冲击会因地区差异和银行资产规模不同而产生变化。该结论在使用工具变量法处理内生性问题和一系列稳健性检验后依然成立。机制检验发现,金融科技会削弱农村商业银行市场势力,对其支农绩效和经营绩效产生“阻力”,但银行市场势力变化又会倒逼农村商业银行数字化转型,为其提升支农绩效和经营绩效带来“契机”。因此,本文研究对政府更好地推动县域金融科技发展和农村商业银行实现数字化转型具有积极的借鉴意义。

Fintech has reshaped the order and pattern of competition in the financial market,which is expected to become an important driving force for China's county-level financial transformation and rural inclusive financial reform.Based on the panel data of 57 rural commercial banks in Jiangsu Province from 2014 to 2020,this paper uses Python web crawler technique and text mining method to construct a county-level financial technology index,and investigates the impact of financial technology on the performance of rural commercial banks in supporting agriculture and operating and its mechanisms.The results show that financial technology has a negative impact on the performance of rural commercial banks in supporting agriculture and operating,and this negative impact varies across different regions and scales of bank assets.This conclusion is still valid after using the instrumental variable method to address the endogeneity problem and a series of robustness tests.The mechanism analysis finds that financial technology weakens the market power of rural commercial banks and generates “resistance” to their performance in supporting agriculture and operating,but the change in market power of banks forces the digital transformation of rural commercial banks,bringing “opportunities” for them to improve their performance in supporting agriculture and operating.Therefore,this study provides positive practical implications for the government to better promote the development of financial technology at the county leveland thedigitaltransformation of ruralcommercial banks.