OREANDA-NEWS. April 04, 2011. Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) is one of the first domestic commercial banks to carry out professional management of SME financial services. After the joint stock reform, ABC further enhanced the professional operation and management level of SEM business. In 2009, ABC established a leading group of SME financial services consisting of 11 departments of the Head Office, to promote the development of SME financial services, reported the press-centre of ABC.

Obvious features of regional SME financial products
On the basis of regional features of SME business, ABC branches actively developed SME financial products with regional features and launched more than 100 SME products, such as chattel mortgage loans for SMEs, deposits-loans accumulation-linked loans for SMEs, commercial property mortgage loans for SMEs, accounts-receivable mortgage financing for small and medium suppliers and joint guarantee loans for industrial clusters of county-level SMEs etc.

Expanding direct financing channels for SMEs
While continuing to increase credit support for SMEs, ABC actively expands the direct financing channels for them. In 2011, Ningbo Branch will cooperate with the science and technology department of the local government to raise funds by issuing collective bills to support the development of local SMEs. At the end of 2009, Shandong Shouguang "Sannong" SME collective bills in Shandong Branch as the major underwriter were issued smoothly, and a total funds of RMB500 million were raised to support the greenhouse vegetable planting, deep processing of agricultural products, logistics and transportation, and production of agricultural means of production.

Developing financial leasing business
In 2010, ABC Financial Leasing Co., Ltdwas officially opened in Shanghai, focusing on the leading supporting enterprises of regional industries and high-tech SMEs, making it the first wholly-owned subsidiary of ABC in China. Compared with other means of financing, financial leasing needs small investment in advance, offers mutual benefit for both sides of leasing, and can help to improve the financing structure and enhance rapidly productivity. Relying on the strengths of ABC, it created a new financing path for SMEs.

Remarkable achievements in SME financial services
By the end of 2010, ABC had established 857 institutions specialized in SME financial services, of which 334 were SME financial service centers, 523 SME financial service sub-centers, special branches and featured branches. A professional operation and management system for the SME financial services from the Head Office to the outlets has been formed, with the network covering the whole country and the services reaching both urban and rural areas. The loans granted to special SME financial service institutions accounted for more than 70% of ABC's SME loans.

In 2010, ABC was awarded the "Best SME Bank" by Financial Money, and the SME featured product "Simple Loans" was awarded the "Outstanding SME Service Product". ABC takes the improvement of services for SME customers as its own historical mission, and makes continuous efforts to solve financing problems for the SME customers, to create a better future together with SMEs.