Lenders urged to support smaller businesses

Regulatory authorities have urged banking and insurance institutions to proactively come out with more steps to provide increased financial support for private companies, especially small and micro enterprises.

The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the industry regulator, has already enacted a series of measures since the beginning of this year to ease the financing woes of private enterprises, including monetary policy measures and financial inclusion, said Wang Zhaoxing, vice-chairman of the CBIRC, at a news conference on Oct 30.

"We encourage banking institutions to keep reducing reliance on collateral for loans to private companies, especially small and micro enterprises, based on the strengthening of their abilities in risk identification and judgment, as well as improvement in risk management," Wang said.

The regulator also urged banking and insurance institutions to further improve their performance appraisal and risk management mechanisms, implement detailed rules which clarify that bank officials would not be held responsible for defaults on loans to small businesses if they have conducted the due diligence operations, Wang said.

By the end of September, the balance of loans to small and micro enterprises, of which the total credit granted by banks to each company does not exceed 10 million yuan ($1.44 million), rose by 19.8 percent year-on-year to 8.93 trillion yuan. The growth rate was 7.17 percentage points higher than that of various loans during the same period.

Yi Huiman, chairman of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, said the bank will explore ways to boost the financing of private enterprises through bond issuance and enact credit policies for different companies based on their performance.

Tian Guoli, chairman of China Construction Bank Corp, highlighted the importance of serving small and micro enterprises.