On July 23rd, as the first bank to establish specialized agency providing financial services for small enterprises, the Qingdao branch of ICBC set up 48 such agencies on the same day. At the opening ceremony, the official in charge of the Qingdao branch announced that no "limitation" would be set for small enterprises' loan applications; as long as the enterprise needing loans has met the qualifications, ICBC will try to satisfy its demand to the most extent.
As learned from the lately held conference attended by branch managers of ICBC, ICBC has so far established 1088 specialized agencies providing financial services for small enterprises, which will no longer serve large and medium-sized enterprises, but focus on financial services for small enterprises and retail businesses.
Such a specialized model will contribute greatly to the development of small enterprises. At present, ICBC owns the largest number of specialized agencies providing financial services for small enterprises and its services for small enterprises cover the widest area among domestic banks.
As a large-scale bank, ICBC has always regarded developing financial business with small and medium-sized enterprises and supporting growth of small and medium-sized enterprises as a long-term strategy. Especially since the second half of 2008, in face of the attack of the global financial crisis, ICBC has continued to increase its loans to small and medium-sized enterprises.
By the end of June 2009, the balance of loans to small and medium-sized enterprises had reached nearly RMB 2.3 trillion. From January to June, ICBC witnessed an increase of RMB 477.3 billion in its loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, a rise of 26%, much higher than the growth rate of loans to companies in the same period.
At present loans to small and medium-sized enterprises take up about 50% of all loans ICBC has granted to companies.
In serving small and medium-sized enterprises, ICBC, in order to meet their needs for "short-termed, frequent and urgent" loans, has never stopped exploring new management models; thus ICBC has formed specialized systems of client rating, credit granting and examination and approval and operation processes, implemented specialized policies for small and medium-sized enterprises, adopted specialized risk control measures, developed a specialized loan management system, and researched on and developed four specialized series of financing products in dozens of types.
Understanding the difficulty of small enterprises in setting up guarantee, ICBC has launched varied mortgage guarantee schemes including guarantee by a natural person, pledge of accounts receivable, pledge of inventory and other properties, pledge of invisible capital, loan warranty insurance, and small and medium-sized enterprises unified insurance.
Meanwhile, ICBC has taken the initiative to offer comprehensive financial services covering loan-granting, trade financing, bill services, settlement service, investment banking, financial consultancy, e-Banking and small and medium-sized enterprises bond financing; and to introduce such customized financial solutions as "loan for adaptation and rent of commercial used housing", "financing solution for suppliers of large-scale supermarkets", "steel trade financing solution", "oil trade financing solution", "gold trade financing solution", "financing service under the item of supervision on automobile license" and "patent pledge loan", which have well met small and medium-sized enterprises' needs.
For its management and operation, ICBC has also made continuous innovations. To better serve small enterprises for which financing is relatively difficult, ICBC has taken as an important guarantee to build up specialized agencies providing financial services for small enterprises. Not only has ICBC established the department of small enterprises financial business, but all first-level branches (directly under the headquarters) of ICBC have also set up centers of small enterprises financial business specially responsible for institution building and risk management for small enterprises financial business, and specialized agencies providing financial services for small enterprises have also been widely instituted at the basic level which provide specific services.
Establishment of 48 specialized agencies providing financial services for small enterprise is implementation of such a plan. Like other branches, besides setting up specialized institutions, the Qingdao branch has also appointed more than 100 client managers to specially serve small enterprises.
The Board Director of ICBC, Mr. Jiang Jianqing, said that based on risk control, ICBC would further improve its financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises and support their development. In the meantime, ICBC hopes to expand its banking market by promoting its small enterprises financial business, so as to harvest win-win outcomes.
