Industrial Bank
Small and medium-sized enterprises are the mainstay of the Chinese economy, given they account for about 97% of all firms in the country and play a vital role in providing employment opportunities.
Catering well to their banking needs is therefore very important. Industrial Bank does it better than most, taking Asiamoney’s best bank for SMEs award in China for 2022.
Its main emphasis has been on constantly developing and enhancing the array of financing and banking options it offers to SMEs. By the end of 2021, the value of inclusive small and micro loans hit Rmb298.8 billion ($42.9 billion), a rise of 56% year on year, while the total number of SME loans increased by 153,000, an impressive 69% annually.
This increased focus on micro SMEs did not come at a cost to the quality of its loan book. Rather, Industrial Bank’s non-performing loan ratio for inclusive small and micro loans fell 0.4 percentage points in 2021 to 0.67%.
It is clear why a large number of China’s MSMEs favour Industrial Bank. In the past three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, the firm cemented its leadership among MSMEs by offering them deferred payment options, supporting loan renewals, setting up a green channel for credit to firms impacted by the health crisis, strengthening its due diligence, and focusing on public welfare activities such as charity donations.
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