Since the beginning of this year, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) made great efforts to develop online “contactless” services in order to fully support small and micro enterprises (SME) in speeding up work and production resumption and anti-epidemic efforts. In Q1, nearly 90% of ICBC’s SME loans were extended online, with its balance exceeding RMB300 billion.

As introduced, the Bank, given the needs of SMEs in different stages of the anti-epidemic battle, developed a number of online financing products, such as “Anti-epidemic Loan”, “Business Resumption Loan”, “Employment Loan”, “Cross-border Loan” and “Cloud Quick Loan”, greatly improving the efficiency of SMEs’ financing and cutting financing costs. For example, a SME in Tianjin, which is mainly engaged in cabbage storage, transportation and sales, received a large number of procurement, storage and transportation orders after the outbreak, and was in urgent need of financial support. ICBC immediately provided it with an online “Business Resumption Loan” and extended RMB4.9 million only in one day to assist the firm in purchasing over 3,000 tons of cabbage, ensuring the supply of vegetables.

In terms of loan renewal services, ICBC allocated special renewal funds to provide online “loans renewal without principal repayment” service for enterprises participating in the epidemic control and prevention, as well as SMEs affected by the epidemic to bail them out. At present, the Bank has provided RMB15 billion loan renewal support to more than 15,000 SMEs.

In terms of comprehensive services, ICBC built a special service team to provide SMEs with online financial services, such as account opening, settlement, payroll agency, and bank cards. Besides, “1,000 experts assisting SMEs” campaign via telephone, video and other means and the full implementation of the “development plan for 10,000 SMEs” further enhanced the Bank’s comprehensive capacity to serve SMEs with “finance + intelligence + commerce”.