Tiny firms lack access to funding, says study

Business was steady for most micro-sized and small enterprises in 2014, but many of them found it difficult to get bank loans, according to a report co-released by Tsinghua University and CreditEase Corp on Friday.

The report was based on a survey of 1,367 micro-sized and small enterprises in 11 provinces covering different sectors.

The report said that 50 percent of the respondents saw their businesses increase last year, but they faced challenges from rising costs and fierce competition.

These companies had strong financing demand, the report said, but the amounts they could raise were small: More than half of the respondents borrowed less than 100,000 yuan ($16,110). Almost 70 percent of the respondents said they needed short-term funds.

But 80 percent of respondents said they felt it was difficult to get loans from banks because they did not have sufficient guarantees and banks' approval process was cumbersome, the report said.

Although most banks avoid lending to micro-sized and small companies, a rising number of alternative financial institutions is eyeing this group of clients and offering a new range of financial services.

Peer-to-peer lending and wealth management company CreditEase is one such lender. It relies on big data technology to give consumers quick decisions on loans.

According to the report, the government should focus more on micro-sized enterprises and offer them special financing support, encourage micro-sized and small financial services organizations to innovate and promote market-oriented loan pricing.

It said about 60 percent of respondents had monthly turnover of less than 100,000 yuan. More than half of the respondents said that their companies had only been operating for less than five years.

It also said that entrepreneurs involved in micro-sized and small enterprises had a strong desire to learn and were good at accepting new things, such as mobile payments.