In recent years, to address financing difficulty and high financing costs for small and micro enterprises (SMEs), and further refined service, ICBC has accelerated innovation of financial business forms and products for SMEs, managing to expand the small and micro banking business by employing Internet thinking. The “Easy Loan” corporate card – a big data financing product launched by the Bank, has offered convenient and efficient financing services to a large number of SME merchants through a service model of “lending on swiping for immediate use”. As at the end of April 2015, the Bank granted RMB7.6 billion loans in total via “Easy Loan” corporate cards, and addressed the funding demand of over 11,000 SMEs during the course of production and operation.

An ICBC official said that developing small and micro banking using big data technology could not only effectively resolve information asymmetry between the Bank and enterprises, strictly control financing risks; but also help to enhance the convenience and coverage of financial services, lower the costs of service and transaction, help enterprises grasp business opportunities, expand markets and improve their business condition.

The “Easy Loan” corporate card is a financing product specifically designed for SMEs using the big data technology. Its core idea is to grasp the actual transaction condition of merchants by mining, analyzing and consolidating the transaction data of merchants from different sectors, convert such data to measurable value, and determine the specific amount of loans. After merchants purchase raw materials, the Bank can grant loans immediately and transfer funds to their accounts in a real-time manner. Based on the differentiated needs of merchants, ICBC has issued “Easy Loan” corporate cards to SME merchants using the Bank’s POS, issued rural consumer corporate purchasing cards to rural merchants that purchase agricultural products, issued online “Easy Loan” credit cards to merchants on its “eBuy” platform, and issued “Easy Loan” corporate cards to merchants in the travel service sector, which meet the financing needs of different types of SME merchants.

As in the case of “Easy Loan” corporate cards for SME merchants, ICBC verifies the viability and cash flow generation capability of enterprises and determines credit lines by mining, analyzing and consolidating the POS transaction data of merchants. Then without having to provide guarantees or mortgages, or submitting loan applications repeatedly every time when necessary, merchants can use loans in a revolving manner within credit lines and pay by installment, which fits the characteristics of funding needs of SME merchants – “short-term, frequent and urgent”. In the meantime, through real-time monitoring of merchants’ POS transaction data, the Bank can promptly identify risks and take effective risk control measures.