Govt measures will drive micro- scale, inclusive financing, official says

The nation’s central bank will encourage the development of micro- scale and inclusive financing through measures including favorable policies, creative financial services and products, and a sound development environment, a central bank official said on Thursday at a meeting in Beijing.

More financial resources should be injected into small and micro- sized enterprises in the agriculture sector and poverty alleviation projects through tools such as differential reserve requirement ratios for banks, domestic news portal chinanews. com reported Thursday, citing the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China Chen Yulu.

Financial institutions are encouraged to accept more kinds of collateral for loans and adopt digital technologies including the Internet, big data and cloud computing to reduce financial trading costs, according to Chen.

Creative debt financing tools should be used to broaden companies’ fundraising channels, Chen noted. Meanwhile, related departments should protect the legal rights and interests of consumers by distributing financial knowledge and cultivating their capacity to identify financial risks, he said.

In addition, China should strengthen prudential supervision over its micro- finance industry to safeguard financial stability, Chen said.