OREANDA-NEWS. May 30, 2011. Beginning from this year, ICBC continues to tap into the financial service market of small business segment. The Bank has rolled out effective measures to ensure financing available to small businesses and maintained fast and healthy progress of this segment, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

At the end of the first quarter, ICBC balance of small business loans chalked up another historic level by a RMB 53.5 billion increase from the beginning of the year, accounting for 35.7% of all corporate loans against the same period. Growth of small business loans reached 11.6%, 8.2 percentage points higher than the average growth rate of all loans in the Bank. Quality of ICBC small business loans continue to improve while sustaining the support in extending credit to small enterprises. The bad loan rate was only 0.69% as of the end of March.

As related by an ICBC executive, in the January to March period the Bank upheld the business strategy of helping development of small businesses given the tight credit supply. ICBC pulls out all stops to provide continuous and stable financial supports for small enterprises. Size of loans to small business customers are separately monitored and managed under the integrated operating plan of ICBC with an aim to ensure the exclusive amount are used for extending credit to small enterprises. Meanwhile, the Bank also takes all necessary measures from other aspects to maintain optimal pool of credit resources, and ultimately addresses the perceived problem of tight credit supply via asset transfer or other options. Besides, in the delivery of financial services to small business owners, ICBC is seeking different ways to build partnership with leasing companies, village banks, small loan companies or pawn shops.

Worthy of note is that, ICBC focuses on the introduction of innovative products and options in line with the features of different small enterprises to better meet the demands of small business customers for diversified and personalized financing services. An example is the trade finance service which is targeted at addressing the "difficulty of getting guarantee" of small enterprises. The service not only ensures the availability of credit facilities for real economy, but also offers financial assistance to all the small enterprises. By the end of March, 2011, ICBC balance of trade facility to small business segment increased RMB 13.4 billion from the beginning of the year, or 25% of increase in small business loans against the same period. Another move taken by ICBC is the launch of various guarantee options such as cluster joint guarantee and combined guarantee as one effective measure to address the guarantee bottleneck of small enterprises. Loans to small businesses are drawn frequently, in small amount, uncertainly in time and place during withdrawal and repayment.

In view of these, ICBC continues to promote the "Online Loan Link" service for customers to apply, draw and repay loans online. The service has been warmly received by the small business customers. "Online Loan Link" is now one important growth point with an increase of RMB 34.7 billion in balance during the first quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, to address the financial needs of special small business customer groups, ICBC encourages branches and subsidiaries to embrace innovation to introduce unique products that suit local circumstances. "Rental Agreement Loan" launched by Shenzhen Branch is designed for tenants located in different places, renting large parcel of leasing properties in Shenzhen's top professional markets and having stable operating cash flow. Shanghai Branch launched "Mortgage Loan for Standard Factory Plant" as a pilot for small-and-medium-size enterprises in industry park and development zone to buy standard factory plant. The launch of these unique products is one way to cater for special small business customer groups, as well as a fruitful experience in the innovation of financing products for small enterprises.