City's inclusive finance sector grows in 2019

Much progress was made in the city’s inclusive finance sector in 2019, and small businesses and financial technology startups have enjoyed quality financial services, according to local regulators.

Small and micro enterprises found it was easier to seek funding at lower costs, thanks to favorable lending policies, the Shanghai Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a new report.

By the end of 2019, the balance of loans for private enterprises in Shanghai came to 1.33 trillion yuan (US$187 billion), of which 385.9 billion yuan was channeled into small firms with credit of less than 10 million yuan.

That marked a 25.9 percent year-on-year gain for funding to small enterprises, with the non-performing loan ratio standing at 0.97 percent, lower than the national average.

In 2019, the weighted average interest rate for loans to small and micro enterprises by domestic banks was 6.68 percent, down 0.9 percentage points from the beginning of the year.

Across the past year, financing channels have been diversified for small companies. Banks, insurers, securities brokers, financing guarantee companies, pawnshops and local asset managers are all geared to offering integrated services to small businesses.

Meanwhile, financial institutions in Shanghai made great efforts to support the city’s construction of sci-tech innovation center.

By the end of 2019, the city’s financial technology sector saw outstanding loans of nearly 280 billion yuan, up 15.8 percent year on year. Of this total, 5.5 billion yuan in loans was extended under the investment and loan linkage mechanism, local officials noted.