OREANDA-NEWS. August 03, 2011. In a bid to better align with the demand of financial services from the small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs), ICBC Beijing Branch has been focusing on small business customers in Beijing over the past few years. Apart from a range of unique "Link" products successively launched in line with the industry characteristics and customer requirements, the Branch steps up the marketing on online loan products (Online Loan Link, Easy Finance Link) and services of collective trust + asset buyout in partnership with concerned government departments. Through continuous product innovation, ICBC Beijing Branch stays close to all the SMEs and scales up its financial services to small-business segment, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

ICBC Beijing Branch pays particular attention on the need of small businesses and medium-sized enterprises in Beijing engaging in energy, pharmaceutical or steel trade. "Energy Link", "Pharmaceutical Link", "Steel Trade Link", "Cotton Trade Link", "Industrial and Commercial Property Link" are some of the exclusive and unique products launched in succession for small business customers in supply chains and industry clusters. Collateral and guarantee are not required in some ICBC loans. The difficulty of small enterprises to get collateral and guarantee to secure bank loans is mainly addressed by the innovative trade finance products developed for the large corporation supply chain. Moreover, the borrowing cost can be reduced to the minimum since these products can be matched with the company's production cycle. "Energy Link" is warmly received by the small business customers, since they can obtain ICBC loans once orders are secured and use the loans for procurement from upstream enterprises. ICBC Beijing Branch has provided loans related to "Link" products of over RMB 5 billion to small businesses up to end of June, 2011.

In 2010, as an effort to fully align with the customer need, ICBC leveraged its powerful Internet Banking system to launch innovative "Online Loan Link" across the country. "Online Loan Link" is a service for customers to draw and repay loans 7*24, anytime, anywhere. Beijing Branch has extended "Online Loan Link" credit of nearly RMB 2 billion to small business customers. An example is a small high-tech firm specialized in on-site management solutions and products for electric power companies based on the actual needs of the electricity users. The company has time lag to collect back the receivables since its downstream companies are mostly large electric power companies. In order to maintain stable cash flow, most often the company resorts to borrowing from individuals. After learning the situation, the Nanlishi Road Sub-Branch of ICBC Beijing Branch offered an online revolving loan ("Online Loan Link") of RMB 1.5 million to the company, based on its use of funds and collection of receivables.

The "Easy Finance Link", a service jointly launched by ICBC Beijing Branch and Alibaba, was online in April this year. Through the "Easy Finance Link", small and micro enterprises can borrow in small amount under different guarantee options provided (credit, guarantee, collateral or pledge). The Branch grants credit to the customers referencing their transactions and credit records in Alibaba platform to give funding opportunities for the micro enterprises. Aided by the ICBC system, the "Easy Finance Link" attracts customer through e-commerce platform and enables them to apply for loan online where interest rate, loan amount are determined automatically as well. This year, ICBC Beijing Branch is looking at different ways to extend credit to merchants in specialized markets, online merchants in bulk Commodity Exchange. The aim is to provide loans to small enterprises in Beijing.

Meanwhile, ICBC Beijing Branch actively involved in the development of innovative products for SMEs such as collective trust service and collective bill service for the launch of direct financing products. In December 2010, the Branch offered the collective trust service to 28 small enterprises by working with Beijing International Trust Co. Ltd., Zhongguancun Sci-tech Guaranty Co., Ltd.. The trust loans were released to these 28 small enterprises through buy-out of trust assets.