By Liu Chang
Recently, impacted by the international financial crisis, the financing problem that restricts the development of small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) is more prominent. As the SMEs' financing is characterized as "short, frequent and fast", which requires the credit products shall meet the demand of enterprises and make adjustment according to the real conditions.
The financial institutions in banking industry provides fine services on financing for SMEs by such methods as establishing SME service specialized institutions, elevating credit audit efficiency, innovating financial products and reinforcing the cooperation between banks and the government, which has made a favorable exploration in boosting the development of SMEs.
In June, 2008, China Merchants Bank(CMB) set up a credit center for small enterprises in Suzhou City, and in December of the same year, the center is approved by China Banking Regulatory Commission as the first financial institution that processing the specialized quality for small enterprises' credit business nationwide. Benefit from the specialized operation manner, the SME business in CMB is developed rapidly, and CMB is planning to provide a loan valued RMB5 billion yuan to SMEs this year. The issuance of China's first SME specialized center license means China's banking industry begins to explore the financial specialized service for SMEs.
Presently, dozens of banks including CMB, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and China Construction Bank (CCB) have set up such an institution. Based on setting up SME specialized institutions, ICBC will choose the area with abundant SME client resource this year and has established "specialized branch bank" to provide financial service for SMEs. By the end of this February, ICBC has increased the loan for SMEs by RMB92.14 trillion yuan, taking up 62 percent of the newly-added companies in the same period.
The setup of SME specialized in institutions marks that the financial service operates in accordance with SMEs' characters and the loan rule. Most specialized institutions are established in the area full of SMEs, and master the local SMEs' detailed operation; secondly, the specialized institutions are set up in accordance with the mode of juridical-person-to-be and bank-to-be and have independent accounting. They are independent in terms of marketing, management and operation, which are propitious to exploring the suitable management mode for its development; thirdly, a specialized institution is integrated by marketing, risk control and compliance management, so it has a strong specialty for serving SMEs. Under such a mechanism, banks will have more impetus to lean their resource to SMEs'loan.
Besides serving SMEs through specialized institutions, various banks realize the normalized management on loan issuance via combing the loan flow. Cao Licong, Vice President of Bank of China (Guangdong Branch), told the correspondent that conducting a batch operation on such businesses as the design, application, approval, issuance and risk control of the loan to SMEs in accordance with the mode of "production line" can enhance the efficiency and quality of loan issuance obviously.
According to the incomplete statistics, currently, the credit products launched by the national financial institutions for supporting SME development has been beyond 300 with such main forms as "export-oriented small enterprises to loan and return loans together", "trade and industry bank agreement ", "warehouse warrant loans", "SME's binding marketing" and "Forfeiting" and the aggregated credit scale has excelled RMB100 billion yuan, which has improved the level of financial service for SMEs efficiently.
Despite providing loans for SMEs, various banks have also cooperated with the government and guarantee companies to cope with the financing problem. This February, Guangdong Credit Guarantee Company for SMEs was established, and there were nine banks including China's four major banks having signed strategic cooperation agreements with re-guarantee companies. Such a provincial-level re-guarantee platform will make a try for the SME re-guarantee system in multiple aspects.
Our correspondent has learned from the interview in Shenzhen that CCB (Shenzhen Branch) has cooperated with the government in Shenzhen and Shenzhen General Chamber of Commerce, constructed a loan credit platform and risk compensation mechanism for SMEs, and established "Fidelity Fund" to explore the solution to the mid-and-long-term financing problem for SMEs. Such a pattern positions well the combining site between the service for small enterprises and risk control, and it is being promoted in CCB's national system range now.
As far as the supervision is concerned, the People's Bank of China encourages financial institutions to increase the credit to SMEs via reinforcing window guidance and monetary policy guidance. The supervision department put forward that to serve SMEs shall insist differentiated treatment and the coexistence of guarantee and pressure; and banks shall reinforce the credit support to such SMEs as those who have strong innovative capability, independent technologies, intellectual property right and brands, those who provide products and services steadily for quality large-scale enterprises and key projects and those who are supported by the government's industrial policies. With the government's increased recognition on the financial service for SMEs, SMEs' financing problem will be released effectively.
