In mid-January 1965, on the eve of the Lunar New Year, the seasonal demand for money increased under normal circumstances, and the banks' monetary conditions began to tighten.

On Saturday, January 23, the third Carrefour supermarket opened, and Li Hualong visited the newly opened supermarket after having breakfast at home.

In order to attract customers, the newly opened supermarket did a lot of promotional activities, and the pre-publicity was in place, and after the supermarket opened, customers poured into the supermarket like a tide.

In order to ensure the operation of the new store, Carrefour specially temporarily transferred some employees from the previous two old supermarkets to the new store to help.

Li Hualong stayed in the supermarket for a day, and in the evening, he did not invite the company's employees to dinner, and went home early for dinner.

At about half past five in the afternoon, Li Hualong returned home and saw Li Yisong and Li Huawen sitting in the living room.

"Abba, I'm back." Li Hualong greeted with a smile, "Big brother, you're here!" ”

Li Huawen didn't want to talk to Li Hualong, and asked directly: "Ah Long, have you heard about the Deyin today?" ”

"What happened to the Mingde Silver?" Li Hualong asked curiously, and he came to Li Huawen's side and sat down.

When Li Hualong came home from work today, he passed by a Mingde bank and did not see a crowd, but he guessed that the crisis of Chinese-funded banks was coming.

"I heard that a cheque worth about HK$7 million in US dollars issued by the Mingde Bank was dishonored today, and I estimate that the Mingde Bank is going to be unlucky."

"What inside information did you get here?" Li Hualong asked.

"There is no need to inquire at all, some Chinese-funded banks such as Mingde Bank have issued a large number of loans to real estate companies, and no one in the industry knows about it. More than half a year ago, you said that real estate can't keep on fire, and in recent months, housing prices have basically not risen, and it is certain that this time, some banks and real estate companies will be unlucky. ”

"Maybe." Li Hualong sighed lightly.

"You are the majority shareholder of Hang Seng Bank, how is Hang Seng Bank doing?" Li Huawen asked.

"It's fine. As early as five years ago, Minsheng Bank began to gradually reduce the proportion of loans issued to the real estate industry, preferring to lend to Chinese-funded enterprises engaged in manufacturing. ”

"You still have the foresight, supporting the growth of Chinese-funded enterprises is beneficial to the long-term development of Hang Seng Bank." Li Huawen said approvingly.

"I've done some of the things I've done before that feel quite aggressive, but in fact, I've thought it through." Li Hualong smirked smugly.

"Scheming!" Li Yisong smiled.

"Abba, you shouldn't say that." Li Huawen smiled and joked, "It's appropriate to let your grandchildren come to it." Ha ha. Third, do your children admire your scheming father? ”

"I don't know. Wait a minute, you can help me ask them! Li Hualong said happily.

Li Huawen remembered that the third supermarket operated by Li Hualong's Carrefour company opened on this day, and asked: "How is the business of the newly opened Carrefour supermarket?" ”

Li Hualong smiled: "It's very good." ”

"Or do you have a vision." Li Huawen smiled and sighed, "At the beginning, when you said that you wanted to run a supermarket, I thought that I wouldn't make much money, and I didn't expect that Carrefour would become a chicken that lays golden eggs!" ”

"It is not enough to have vision, but also to have vision and courage." Li Yisong smiled and said, "You Uncle Bao (Bao Quanfu) are not less than I said, Hualong especially appreciates Yunshan (Bao Yunshan), Yunshan works very hard." ”

"Yunshan is very serious about his work, and Carrefour is really inseparable from him." Li Hualong said, "Abba, in a few days, I will invite Uncle Bao's family to come to our house as guests." ”

"Okay!" Li Yisong responded with a smile, "You call to invite." ”

"Okay, I'll call when we're done with dinner."

"When will the fourth Carrefour supermarket open?" Li Huawen asked.

"I haven't chosen an address yet." Li Hualong replied, "However, it's almost over, I think there are two places that are quite suitable for opening a supermarket, and they are talking about buying old buildings, and even if they are negotiated, they will be demolished and rebuilt." ”

"Didn't you say that you are bearish on the real estate market, and the matter of buying old buildings for reconstruction can be delayed for a while!" Li Huawen said.

"The market is not easy to say, and the business has to continue. Buy low and sell low, buy high and sell high, just make money. ”

Three days later, on January 26, a number of larger customers cashed cheques at the head office of Mingde Bank in the Central District, which did not have enough cash to pay.

When the news broke, customers of all sizes flocked to the Mingde Bank, and in the afternoon of the same day, the Hong Kong Clearing House announced that it would stop the exchange of bills for the bank.

The next day, early in the morning of January 27, the front office of the Mingde Silver was crowded with people withdrawing money.

At 12 noon, the Commissioner of Banking of the Hong Kong Government announced the takeover of Matilda Bank under section 13 of the Banking Ordinance.

The run on the Middlebury Bank set off the first wave of the banking crisis in 1965.

Founded in the early 40s of the 20th century, Mingde Bank focused on US dollar exchange in the early days, and actively engaged in real estate trading after the 50s of the 20th century.

Li Hualong thinks that it is normal for the "not doing business" Mingde Bank to go bankrupt, and when the real estate market is good, Mingde Bank can make money by taking the depositors' deposits to invest in real estate, but when the market is not very good, and the house price increase is very low or falling, the Mingde Bank that needs to pay high interest to depositors is easy to be like dominoes, as long as one piece falls, a large number of people will fall.

Although the company owns a number of properties that have been completed or are under construction, it is no longer able to repay its debts, and has promised high interest rates to depositors in order to raise deposits.

Over the years, Li Hualong has studied Hong Kong's economy more thoroughly, Hong Kong is a free port city, which is easily affected by external factors, such as the Hong Kong dollar and the pound pegged, the depreciation of the pound will cause Hong Kong's prices to rise.

Compared with the real estate industry in large countries, Hong Kong's real estate industry has much worse self-regulation ability, when the market is good, housing prices rise sharply, and when the market is bad, housing prices plummet.

In fact, in the history of the United States, housing prices have also fallen sharply, even after the reform and opening up in China, the real estate industry has also fallen sharply, which shows the profit-seeking nature of capital.

As soon as there is a proper profit, capital is emboldened.

If there is a 10% profit, it has to be guaranteed to be used everywhere; With a 20% profit, it becomes active; With a 50% profit, it takes risks; For the sake of 100% profit, it dares to trample on the laws of the world; With a 300% profit, it dares to commit any crime, even risking hanging its head.

In fact, as early as the early 60s, Li Hualong felt that Hong Kong's banking industry was secretly murderous.

In 1961, Liao Chong Hing Bank was run into bankruptcy, and the founder Liao Baoshan died of cerebral congestion.

In order to avoid further banking trends, the British government enacted and passed the Banking Ordinance 1964, which for the first time truly supervised the banking industry and set corresponding regulatory indicators. The most important of these include the requirement for share capital (each bank must have a 5 million share capital requirement), a liquidity ratio of at least 25%, investment in stocks and real estate cannot exceed 25% of the share capital plus reserve accumulation, and the proportion of loans to a single customer cannot exceed 25% of the total amount, etc.

The British government in Hong Kong had a good idea, but the result was fatal.

This is because after a long period of extensive development, the accumulated problems of Hong Kong's banking industry have been exposed.

For example, in 1960, the total deposits of Liao Chong Hing Bank were 109 million Hong Kong dollars, but the investment and loans in real estate were as high as 82 million.

In the absence of necessary industry supervision such as the loan-to-deposit ratio, capital adequacy ratio restrictions, single-customer loan ratio restrictions, liquidity restrictions, etc., Hong Kong's banks, especially Chinese-funded banks, have no soundness in their operations, and a crisis is imminent.

As the major shareholder of Hang Seng Bank, although he does not participate in the day-to-day operation of the bank, he has put a lot of effort into making Hang Seng Bank more stable and enhancing its ability to resist crises.