In order to fully implement the spirit of the Party's 20th Congress and the Central Economic Work Conference, and implement the 2023 "Government Work Report" and the requirements of The State Council for the division of work, the General Office of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission recently issued the "Notice on Strengthening the quality of financial services for small and micro enterprises in 2023" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice").

 We will make greater efforts to improve the quality of financial services for small and micro enterprises, effectively enhance the sense of access to financial services, promote the full recovery and innovative development of small and micro market players, and better stimulate market vitality and internal development momentum.

The "Notice" clarified the annual work objectives: to form a small and micro enterprise financial service system that is compatible with the development of the real economy, continue to maintain an incremental expansion trend in 2023, optimize the service structure, improve the precision of service in key areas, and expand insurance protection channels. The overall lending interest rate remained stable, and the comprehensive financing cost of small and micro enterprises was gradually lowered.

The Notice focuses on the needs of small and micro enterprises in key areas and requires banking and insurance institutions to strengthen precise support. We will support the reasonable financial needs of small and micro businesses in areas such as accommodation, catering, retail, education, culture, tourism, sports, transportation and foreign trade, and promote economic recovery. Based on the needs of the construction of a modern industrial system, we will support the development of small and micro enterprises in manufacturing, science and technology, specialized and new, and help industrial upgrading. Actively develop credit products that meet the production and operation characteristics of individual industrial and commercial households, and better meet their capital needs of urgent use, short term and high frequency.

The "Notice" requires banking and insurance institutions to practice the concept of people first and customer first, and carry out the activity of "taking 10,000 enterprises to improve confidence and excellent service". In-depth understanding of the full range of financial needs of small and micro enterprises, identify the integration point with their own business strategy, actively linkage relevant industry authorities, local governments, relying on industrial parks, service centers, information platforms and other channels to improve the efficiency of supply and demand docking. At the same time, banking and insurance institutions and regulatory departments at all levels are required to strengthen the application of credit information sharing, actively promote the construction of information sharing mechanisms such as the national integrated financing credit service platform network, promote more accurate and comprehensive collection and sharing of small and micro enterprise credit information across the country, optimize data exchange methods, and improve the availability of credit information.

The "Notice" closely linked to the theme of improving service quality, detailing the service requirements for banks. Clearly focus on expanding the service coverage of small and micro enterprises without loans, strengthen the mining and application of small and micro enterprises credit information, and increase the supply of credit loans. Actively develop special products for small and micro enterprises to renew loans or improve the function of existing products to renew loans, and reasonably determine the conditions of the bank to renew loans. Regulate the service charging behavior of small and micro enterprises, fully understand, strictly review, and continuously evaluate the charges of third-party institutions, and promptly stop cooperation if there are illegal charges or excessive charges. Strengthen risk monitoring and analysis, and reasonably control the quality of loans. We will improve the response mechanism for the demands of small and micro market entities, seriously respond to the reasonable demands of small and micro enterprises, and guide grass-roots branches and account managers to solve problems at the front line of service.

The "Notice" clarifies the specific requirements for building an insurance service mechanism for small and micro enterprises and expanding insurance protection channels. At the institutional level, the insurance industry is required to establish the concept of providing comprehensive and systematic risk protection for small and micro enterprises, identify special departments to coordinate the insurance work of small and micro enterprises, and sort out various insurance services for small and micro enterprises. Export credit insurance companies are required to expand the coverage of short-term export credit insurance for small and micro foreign trade enterprises. We will support insurance companies in diversifying cooperation with governments and banks to serve small and micro enterprises. At the product and service level, insurance companies are encouraged to diversify product categories for various small and micro market players, design exclusive insurance schemes, introduce flexible payment services, and explore simplified loss settlement modes in accordance with the principles of sustainable business and reasonable premiums. We will promote various property insurance products such as engineering construction, logistics and transportation, disaster response, and product liability for small and micro enterprises, and enrich life insurance products such as health, accident, and pension for people related to enterprises such as individual industrial and commercial households and small and micro owners.

In recent years, the banking and insurance industry has earnestly implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and The State Council, and continuously deepened the financial services for small and micro enterprises, individual industrial and commercial enterprises and other market entities. By the end of March 2023, the balance of loans to inclusive small and micro enterprises in the banking sector was 25.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 25.8% year-on-year, 14.6 percentage points higher than the growth rate of all loans; The number of customers with loan balances reached 40.105 million.

Managing Editor: Yuan Hao