The Postal Savings Bank of China has extended 70 billion yuan ($10.2 billion) in loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises in the past 12 months, the bank's president, Tao Liming, said in remarks reported on Sunday.
Tao told the official Xinhua news agency the size of its SME loan book would exceed 100 billion yuan by the end of this year, complementing the government's 4 trillion yuan economic stimulus package.
The Postal Savings Bank, which has 36,500 branches nation-wide and 2.2 trillion yuan in deposits, launched its small loan programme in the central province of Henan last June. Although it requires no collateral, less than 0.5 percent of the loans had turned sour, Tao said.
"The bank has achieved sustainable development in the small loan business," Xinhua quoted him as saying. Separately, Industry and Information Technology Minister Li Yizhong said the government would guarantee 600 billion yuan in loans for SMEs this year, Xinhua's online service, www.xinhuanet.com, reported.
The government has been stepping up efforts to improve the flow of credit to small firms, which often struggle to borrow from the state-dominated banking system even though they account for as much as three-quarters of Chinese output and jobs.
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