In recent years, ICBC has actively boosted the integration of financial services and Internet technologies by launching a series of internet financing products in line with the characteristics of small and micro enterprises (“SMEs”), including E-Revolving Loan and e-Supply Chain Finance, which meet the financing needs of these enterprises and lower their funding costs. Statistics show that the Bank extended RMB 1.5 trillion loans in total to 67,000 SMEs under the “E-Revolving Loan” product alone by the end of 2014.

Nowadays the production and operation of SMEs are no longer restricted to the “50km” economic circle as in the past; some have even realized multinational operations, which not only breaks geographical boundaries, but gradually separates the capital flow, information flow and material flow from one another in the production and sales process. In this context, ICBC, by applying internet thinking and focusing its experiments on the micro finance sector, has combined internet technologies with its management experience long amassed in the credit sector and the advantages of its professional teams, and accelerated the promotion of service model innovation and internet-based product upgrading and renovation, in attempts to find a new path for the development of micro finance, which can both accommodate the characteristics of the funding demands of SMEs, and properly prevent and control risks. All these efforts have gradually taken effect. “E-Revolving Loan”, for example, is an online self-service revolving loan service designed for SMEs. By signing a borrowing contract, they can complete at home the application, withdrawal and repayment of loans within the valid term of contract, which particularly suits generally short, frequent and urgent funding demands of SMEs. Compared with other financing products, the “E-Revolving Loan” is also highly efficient, self-disposable and free from interest accrual if no fund is withdrawn. Businesses can borrow and repay loans based on the peak and slack season of their sales to cut down financing costs, which fits SMEs’ intermittent and cyclic funding needs.

In supply chain finance for SMEs, since 2010 the Bank has launched a series of flagship products including upstream e-factoring and downstream e-dealership financing of e-supply chains, and provided one-stop financing services by matching online transactions via the supply chain coordination platform. For instance, a supply chain coordination platform set up jointly by the Bank and a renowned domestic communications group has realized internet-based operations from information interaction to loan application, contract signing, loan withdrawal and repayment. Since the rollout of the platform in June 2014, ICBC has provided the upstream enterprises of this group with factoring and financing services worth RMB 490 million in total.