IS230PCAAH1B The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission recently issued the Notice on Further Strengthening Financial Support for the Development of Small and Micro Enterprises in 2022, pointing out that the overall requirements for 2022 work are to adhere to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability and continuously improving the financial supply of small and micro enterprises. Focusing on the strategic tasks of “six stability” and “six guarantees”, we will consolidate and improve the financial supply pattern featuring differentiated positioning and orderly competition, further improve the quality and efficiency of financial services, steadily increase bank credit and optimize the structure, enrich inclusive insurance products and businesses, and promote a reasonable decline in comprehensive financing costs.

The “Notice” clarified the annual work target: in IS230PCAAH1B terms of total amount, the banking industry continued to achieve inclusive small and micro enterprise loan growth and the number of households “two increases”. In terms of structure, we will strive to continuously increase the proportion of credit loans in the balance of loans to inclusive small and micro enterprises. Efforts have been made to increase the proportion of first borrowers among small and micro enterprise loan households, and large banks and joint-stock banks have achieved a higher number of new “first borrowers” of small and micro enterprise legal persons in the year than in the previous year. In terms of cost, under the premise of ensuring the incremental expansion of credit supply, we will strive to reduce the interest rate of new inclusive small and micro enterprise loans issued by the banking industry in the whole year compared with 2021.

IS230PCAAH1B

IS230PCAAH1B The “Notice” detailed the financial service requirements for small and micro enterprises in key areas and weak links. Increase medium – and long-term credit for small and micro enterprises in advanced manufacturing and strategic emerging industries, and actively support the medium – and long-term capital needs of small and micro enterprises in traditional industries in equipment renewal, technological transformation, and green transformation development. Guide banking and insurance institutions to connect with competent departments, and establish and improve the information docking mechanism for “specialized and special” small and medium-sized enterprises. We will improve science and technology credit and science and technology insurance services, and encourage banks and external investment institutions to explore new models of serving small and micro science and technology startups such as “loans + external direct investment” under the premise of controllable risks. We will provide appropriate foreign exchange hedging products for small and micro foreign trade enterprises, and expand the coverage and scale of export credit insurance for small and micro foreign trade enterprises. Optimize the term management of small and micro enterprise loans by borrowing and repaying and renewing loans. IS230PCAAH1B For small and micro enterprises that have temporary operating difficulties but do have the willingness to repay and the ability to create jobs, we will take overall consideration of means such as loan extension and restructuring, and independently negotiate ways to repay principal and interest in accordance with market-based principles.

In addition, the Notice also deployed the task topic of “Promoting the integration and sharing of enterprise-related credit information” in the Government Work Report, and clearly proposed that regulatory departments at all levels and banking and insurance institutions should actively participate in promoting the construction of credit information sharing mechanisms and financing service platforms, promote the orderly expansion of information sharing scope, improve the availability of information and data, and improve platform functions. Focus on summarizing and promoting good experience in the construction of provincial and municipal financing credit service platforms to improve regional information integration, sharing and application efficiency. Strengthen the data capacity building of banking and insurance institutions, solidly promote digital transformation, and accelerate the development and application of big data financial products. Special emphasis is placed on improving the security management system of enterprise-related credit information, and strictly standardizing data security and privacy protection in cooperation with third-party institutions.

According to reports, inclusive small and micro enterprise loans have achieved rapid growth for four consecutive years. As of the end of February this year, the loan balance of 19.67 trillion yuan, an increase of 22.16%, 11.15 percentage points higher than the growth rate of all loans; The number of households with outstanding loans reached 34.5058 million. In the first two months of this year, the interest rate of newly issued inclusive small and micro enterprise loans was 5.57%, which has maintained a steady decline since the first quarter of 2018, and has decreased by 2.24 percentage points.