OREANDA-NEWS. July 28, 2011. Over the past few years, online merchant is a new business model making its way riding the tide of online shopping and electronic commerce, offering new business opportunities for small and micro enterprises and individual start-ups. Earlier, in a bid to better support the healthy growth of this type of small and micro enterprises, ICBC rolled out "Easy Finance Link" to extend loans to micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households running business on the third-party e-commerce platforms, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

In general, online merchants running business on e-commerce platforms are small in scale. It is difficult for them to obtain bank loan due to a lack of valid collateral. Moreover, the conventional bank financing cannot cater for their needs of funds “in a short time, in a frequent and quick fashion” since they need working capital for different business segments and use funds very frequently. The innovative "Easy Finance Link" loan product is designed for this type of micro enterprises. Online merchants, as long as they have normal business and stable income, are welcomed to borrow up to RMB 5 million via third party e-commerce platforms or ICBC Internet Banking, taking own situation into consideration and providing guarantee (credit guarantee, third-party guarantee, joint guarantee, collateral or pledge). ICBC system will automatically process the information given and determine credit line to the customer based on the amount borrowed, the source and reliability of repayment.

As related by an executive with ICBC, when compared to the conventional bank financing, "Easy Finance Link" enables borrowers to sign loan contracts online, the first such service in the banking sector. For customers, once signing the contract in person at ICBC for the first time, electronic borrowing contracts can be signed in advance via ICBC Internet Banking. Besides, all procedures starting from loan application to review, approval, drawdown and repayment can be completed online, simple and easy. Extending loan online becomes automatic and very convenient. Customers can draw or repay loan online, anytime, anywhere, no need to run to the bank. To the small enterprises, apart from enjoying the convenience of the service, they can reduce their operation costs and are flexible to obtain bank loan. Meanwhile, ICBC and e-commerce companies work together on the design and innovation. "Easy Finance Link" encompasses standardization, automated review and self-service under one roof where online merchants or micro enterprises can apply for loans online through electronic mean, automatic, intelligent and personalized, answering the needs of online merchants or micro enterprises for financing services.