Banks aid enterprises' resumptions with preferential policies

Bank of Ningbo and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank said they have launched targeted measures to help enterprises, especially small businesses, resume operations during the COVID-19 health crisis.

As of the end of March, 9.1 billion yuan (US$1.28 billion) of interest-free loans had been extended to 35,000 small and micro-sized enterprises, Bank of Ningbo announced in its recent quarterly financial report.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the lender has closely followed the situation of its small corporation clients and has made timely responses to their all kinds of business consultations and applications.

To better meet the financing needs of companies affected by the pandemic, the Ningbo-based bank has provided 3.9 billion yuan of special reloans to key enterprises in medical and living materials manufacturing sectors nationwide as well as in Zhejiang Province.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank said it had granted 144.6 billion yuan in credit to 856 enterprises which fought at the front line against the epidemic by the end of March, and underwrote 40 bonds totaling 29.2 billion yuan relating epidemic prevention and control.

To help small businesses ride through funding difficulties, the Shanghai bank took a series of measures such as adjusting their repayment arrangements, extending loans, increasing credit lines and lowering loan interest rates for them.

For individual customers who have difficulty in repaying due to the epidemic, a grace period was provided.

Also, it offered all kinds of contactless services for company and retail customers with intelligent marketing robot, cloud-based wealth management service and other financial technology applications.