By September, outstanding loans extended to small and micro enterprises (SMEs) from the largest five state-owned banks – Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of Communications – reached Rmb2.52tr ($356bn), an increase of Rmb814.8bn from the end of 2018, according to a press conference on Monday by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).
According to Zhu Shumin, vice chairman of CBIRC, the five big banks have fulfilled their promise ahead of schedule, of boosting their lending to SMEs by 30% by the end of the year.
“But it hasn’t exactly lit a fire under the private sector – total outstanding loans for all banks in China stand at Rmb150tr,” Trivium, a consulting firm, wrote in a Wednesday note. “That means SME loans by the big five represent just 1.7% of overall outstanding loans. If we’re generous and assume that the non state-owned banks increased SME lending by a similar amount, then SME loans might total about 4% of outstanding loans.”
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The Chinese Ministry of Finance is planning to sell a euro-denominated bond, Bloomberg reported. It will be the first such issuance since 2004.
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China overtook France in the World Bank’s annual rankings for ease of doing business, according to a Wednesday report. China’s ranking jumped from 46 last year to 31. France’s ranking remained unchanged at 32.
“China has undertaken substantial efforts to improve the domestic business climate for small and medium-sized enterprises, maintaining an active pace of reforms,” said Martin Raiser, World Bank country director for China. “Laudable progress has been achieved on a number of Doing Business indicators, particularly in the area of construction permitting.”
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Global index provider MSCI responded to US senator Marco Rubio’s criticism that by increasing the inclusion factor of Chinese A-shares in its indices, the index provider will help channel billions of dollars into the Chinese stock market, which threatened the national security of the US.
MSCI responded in a letter that its inclusion of A-shares is based on objective attributes of companies instead of subjective judgment.
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IHS Markit, a London-based global information provider, announced the formation of a joint venture with Hundsun Technologies, a Chinese provider of financial software, technologies and network services, to set up an end-to-end electronic bookbuilding solution for bond syndication in Mainland China, according to a Tuesday press release.
The solution will allow Chinese banks to collaborate in real time to publish new deals to the market, communicate terms and share other deal information with sales desks.
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In September, the renminbi retained its position as the fifth most active currency for international payments by value, with a share of 1.95%, according to Swift’s monthly RMB tracker
In terms of international payments, excluding payments within the Eurozone, the renminbi moved down one position to the eighth with a share of 1.26% in September. The percentage was 1.42% in August.