Time period for SME loan repayment to be extended

China will properly extend the implementation period of the policy that allows qualified small businesses to apply for delays of repayments of loan principal and interest. It also will create policy instruments to support banks to issue loans with no collateral, an official of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said on Monday.

Ever since the novel coronavirus broke out, the country has launched a series of measures to integrate the prevention and control of the epidemic with the provision of financial services to promote economic and social development.

Data from the China Banking Association show that China's banking institutions had offered more than 3.11 trillion yuan ($437 billion) of credit as of Sunday to support the prevention of the spread of the disease, as well as the resumption of work and production.

China has allowed qualified micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises with principal or interest due between Jan 25 and June 30 to apply for delays to the end of the second quarter. Regulators told lenders not to downgrade loans with missed payments or report delinquencies to the country's centralized credit-scoring system before then.

By the end of April, banking institutions had allowed MSMEs to postpone repayments of loan principal and interest totaling over 1.2 trillion yuan, the official said.

The regulatory commission also instructed banks to allow enterprises to use their accounts receivable, warehouse receipts and inventories as collateral to secure funds through supply chain finance.

Commercial banks encourage key enterprises in supply chains that have received funding to pay cash to their upstream and downstream MSMEs, to help reduce financial stress and financing costs of small businesses.

By the end of April, banking institutions had offered 22.4 trillion yuan to key enterprises in support of their working capital turnover and provided 17.4 trillion yuan infunding to upstream and downstream enterprises.

Under regulatory instructions and strengthened regulations, banks kept improving the quality and effects of their financial inclusion services.

By the end of July, outstanding loans to small businesses with a total credit line of up to 10 million yuan for each borrower amounted to 12.79 trillion yuan, rising 27.34 percent year-on-year.

The interest rate of such new loans issued by 18 national commercial banks to micro and small enterprises was 4.94 percent, down 0.5 percentage point from last year, according to the regulatory commission.