China's banking institutions have so far extended more than 1.4 trillion yuan (about 200 billion U.S. dollars) of credit to facilitate the ongoing battle against the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to the country's top banking regulator.

Yang Liping, an official with the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), told a press conference Friday that the banking sector has enhanced support for private enterprises, small and micro- firms as well as sectors of manufacturing and spring farming.

To aid small firms struck by the outbreak, the CBIRC has prohibited banking institutions to withdraw, delay or stop providing loans to these enterprises and ordered them to roll over loans due after Jan.25, according to Yang.

This arrangement has covered more than 22 million small enterprises and individually-owned businesses，plus individuals like truck and taxi drivers who have not been able to work during the outbreak.

The CBIRC will continue to encourage banks to increase loan support for small private firms at lower costs, as well as to finance more firms that have never borrowed from banks, according to Yang.

This year, China's policy banks plan to increase special loan quotas for private and small firms by 350 billion yuan at discounted lending rates, while all banking institutions should boost credit to individually-owned businesses by 500 billion yuan, both compared with last year's levels, she said.

In 2019, new loans for China's private firms totaled 4.4 trillion yuan, with annualized lending rates down by 93 basis points from the same period a year ago, according to the CBIRC.