发布文号: No. 53 [2007] of China Banking Regulatory Commission
All banking regulatory bureaus, policy banks, state-owned commercial banks and joint-stock commercial banks,
After China Banking Regulatory Commission （CBRC） promulgated the Guiding Opinions about the Banks' Granting of Loans to Small Enterprises （No.54 [2005] of China Banking Regulatory Commission） in 2005, banks have updated their management concepts, innovated their institutional mechanisms, innovated their credit products, vigorously developed their loan businesses for small enterprises, and achieved remarkable results. In order to enrich and improve the "six mechanisms" for granting credits to small enterprises, and guide banks to further improve and reinforce their financial services for small enterprises, the CBRC has revised the Guiding Opinions about the Banks' Granting of Loans to Small Enterprises on the basis of absorbing the banks' experiences in granting loans to small enterprises. The revised Guiding Opinions about the Banks' Granting of Credits to Small Enterprises are hereby printed and distributed to you, please implement them carefully.
Each banking regulatory bureau shall forward these Guiding Opinions to all the banking regulatory sub-bureaus and banking financial institutions within its jurisdiction.
June 29, 2007
Guiding Opinions about the Banks' Granting of Credits to Small Enterprises
Article 1 These Guiding Opinions are put forward according to the banks' practical experiences in granting credits to small enterprises in recent years and the pertinent laws and regulations for the purpose of guiding banks to fulfill the viewpoint of scientific development, transform management concepts, optimize the asset structure, improve and reinforce the financial services for small enterprises.
Article 2 The term of "granting of credits to small enterprises" as mentioned in these Guiding Opinions generally refers to the granting of credits to the enterprises and various kinds of corporate organizations that carry out business activities as well as the individual business households, in which the total amount of credits to a single household is five million yuan or less and the total amount of the assets of an enterprises is ten million yuan or less, or the total amount of credits is five million yuan or lessand the annual sales amount of an enterprises is three million yuan or less.
The term "granting of credits" as mentioned in these Guiding Opinions generally refers to the various on-balance-sheet and off-balance-sheet granting of credits and financing businesses such as loans, trade financing, discount, factoring, loan commitment, guaranty, letter of credit, as well as the acceptance of instruments.
The term "banks" as mentioned in these Guiding Opinions includes policy banks and commercial banks. The term "commercial banks" generally refers to state-owned commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks, urban commercial banks, rural commercial banks, rural cooperative banks, urban credit cooperatives, rural credit cooperatives, village banks and foreign-funded banks, etc.
Article 3 A bank shall, when granting credits to small enterprises, enhance its sense of social responsibility, observe the principle of managing the business independently, assuming sole responsibility for its profits or losses, independently bearing risks, and conducting market-based operations, and realize the sustainable commercial development of the credit granting business to small enterprises.
A bank shall, according to the features and internal rules of the credit granting to small enterprises, grant credits to small enterprises, and realize the goal of streamlined procedures, adjustable conditions, calculable costs, floatable interest rates, controllable risks and separable responsibilities.
Article 4 A bank shall innovate its credit granting business to small enterprises, improve its business procedures, risk management and internal control, pay attention to the establishment and improvement of the "six mechanisms" for the granting of credits to small enterprises, which include an interest rate risk pricing mechanism, an independent accounting mechanism, an efficient examination and approval mechanism, an incentive and restraint mechanism, a professional personnel training mechanism, and a default information communications mechanism.
Article 5 A bank shall establish a professional organizational structure, form relatively independent business assessment units of different management levels, form a full-time staff, and carry out professional operations.
Article 6 A bank shall form normalized business procedures, and may use the credit management information system to formulate different normalized credit granting business procedures for different credit granting products to small enterprises, clarify operating criteria and prompt processing requirements for different business links, and realize the professional and normalized processing of front-office, mid-office and back-office businesses.
Article 7 A bank shall clarify its market and client positioning, subdivide the small enterprise market and clients where necessary, work out a market strategy, study the characteristics, business rules and risk features of various small enterprise client groups, establish small enterprise client access and withdrawal standards as well as a reserve bank of target clients, and enhance the pertinence and effectiveness of market promotions.
Article 8 A bank shall build up the awareness of famous brands, build more credit brands to small enterprises, promote the innovation of products in light of the small enterprises' life circle and financing demands featured by short term, small amount, frequent and urgent loans, as well as the principle of being market-oriented and customer-centered, and satisfy the demands of small enterprises of different regions, different industries, different types and different development phases.
Article 9 A bank shall provide different product portfolio services to different small enterprises by considering their line of financing, financing period, way of security and other factors, may provide working capital loans, circulating loans, revolving loans, package loans, trust loans for export tax refund accounts, acceptance and discount of commercial bills, buyer's or negotiated discounting of bills with interest, overdraft of credit cards, overdraft of corporate accounts, financing to the import and export trade, transfer of accounts receivable, factoring, guaranty letter, loan commitments, etc.
A bank may introduce syndicated loans in the granting of credits to small enterprises.
Article 10 A bank shall establish an efficient examination and approval mechanism, and shall, on the premise of keeping the risk under control, reasonably set the examination and approval power, optimize the examination and approval procedures and enhance the examination and approval efficiency.
A bank shall implement the differential authorization management in light of the different economic development levels and credit environments of different regions, different business management levels and risk control capabilities of different branches as well as the different risks of different credit products, etc.
A bank may synchronize or combine the links of credit granting to small enterprises, and may synchronize the market promotion to small enterprise clients with the preliminary survey of the credit granting, synchronize the survey with the examination of the credit granting, synchronize the post-credit-granting survey with the survey of the current credit granting; may combine the credit rating, verification of the line of credit and the examination and approval links for the credit granting to small enterprises; and may process the credit granting business to small enterprises in a concentrated manner and by batches.
A bank may separately grant certain examination and approval power for the credit granting to its client service managers and credit examiners.
Article 11 As for the credit survey, a bank shall pay attention to on-site surveys, and shall not solely rely on the financial statements or various written materials of small enterprises or solely rely on the security.
A bank shall pay attention to the collection of non-financial information about small enterprises, including the personal credit status, household income and expenditure, business management, technical level, industry conditions and market prospects of small enterprises and their owners or major shareholders.
A bank may, on the basis of the surveys and the information collected, work out the balance sheets, profit and loss statements and cash flow statements of small enterprises and their owners or major shareholders, and take them as the main basis for analyzing the financial situation and the repayment capacity of small enterprises.
Article 12 A bank shall establish and improve the credit risk assessment system of small enterprise clients, and may, in light of the survival time, qualities of operators, business situation, repayment capacities, credit status and development prospects, etc. of enterprises, work out a small enterprise credit rating system, and give prominence to the credit status of small enterprises' owners or major shareholders as well as the market environment and credit environment of small enterprises.
Article 13 A bank may grant credit loans, and may, on the premise of sufficient reflection of risks in the prices, grant a certain amount of credit loans with a term to the small enterprises with a good credit status and really able to repay loans.
Article 14 A bank may accept the mortgage of real estate and shops, pledge of intellectual property rights in exclusive rights of trademarks, patent rights, copyrights, pledge of warehouse receipts, bills of lading, pledge of fund units, stock rights, pledge of accounts receivable, pledge of inventories, pledge of export tax returns, pledge of supply and marketing contracts of the enterprises with a good credit status, mortgage, pledge or guaranty security by personal properties of small enterprises' owners or major shareholders, etc.
A bank may adopt flexible security modes and make full use of the joint security by business owners, the security by economic associations, take advantage of export credit insurance to substitute the security and other new loan securities to grant credits to those small enterprises that have obtained the government discounts, venture investment funds or technology innovation funds for small technology enterprises, or that have obtained the security from professional security institutions.
Article 15 A bank shall innovate its modes for use of the line of credit and the repayment modes, and may engage in the business of revolving loans, lump-sum loans and small-sum repayments, small-sum loans and small-sum repayments, installment repayment of principal and interests, one-off repayment of principal and installment repayment of interests, and repayment of principal and interests with grade periods, etc.
Article 16 A bank shall establish an interest rate risk pricing mechanism, adhere to the principle of covering costs and risks with proceeds, and shall, within the scope as permitted by regulations or policies, determine the interest rates of loans by itself according to the risk level, capital raising costs, management costs, target earnings from loans, requirement for return of capital, local market interest rate, etc., and may set different prices for different small enterprises or different credit products.
Article 17 A bank shall encourage its client service managers to establish a comprehensive and regular community relationship inside the communities where it provides services, so as to collect information and supervise the use of credits.
Article 18 A bank shall determine different key points of post-credit-granting management in light of the risk characteristics of different credit products, put the emphasis of monitoring on the payment of sale proceeds to the bank, cash flow alteration, repayment situation and security alteration, etc., and shall timely give a written report and take necessary measures in the case of any significant matter that may affect the repayment of credits.
Article 19 A bank shall strengthen the classified risk management of the credits granted to small enterprises, and classify the risks in the credits granted to small enterprises according to the principle of combining the number of default days and the guaranty mode of loans.
A bank shall, on the basis of scientific calculation, reasonably work out the control indicators of bad credits to small enterprises, and timely adjust such indicators along with the change of risks.
Article 20 A bank shall establish a reasonable mechanism of drawing loan loss reserves for small enterprises and writing off non-performing loans upon verification, and draw such reserves and write off non-performing loans according to legal provisions. As for the credits that have been written off upon verification, they shall be dealt with in light of the principle of "writing off accounts without canceling the cases and rights".
Article 21 A bank shall establish a statistical system and information management system suitable for the demands of the credit granting business to small enterprises. The information management system shall record and collect all the previous small enterprise credit applications, and the use and repayment thereof, enable the credit business operating staff to timely monitor the conditions about credit granting risks, including credit types, risk classification results, repayment situation, credit balance and security changes, etc.
A bank shall establish and strengthen its exchanges and coordination with the local government, public security organ, taxation authority, industrial and commercial administration, trade association, accounting firms, law firms and credit management consultancy companies, etc., pay attention to and collect the public information, legal information, identity information and credit transaction information, etc. about small enterprises and their owners or major shareholders.
Article 22 A bank shall establish a default information communications mechanism, and shall, via post-granting monitoring means, timely input the default information of small enterprises and the information about their affiliated enterprises into its information management system or circulate such information inside the bank; give regular reports to the CBRC and its attached office; circulate a notice to the banking financial institutions via the banking association, and jointly punish and publicly disclose those small enterprises that have maliciously evaded bank debts.
Article 23 A bank shall establish an independent accounting mechanism, improve and perfect the cost management, establish an independent accounting mechanism and an internal cooperation assessing mechanism on the basis of internal price transfer, work out special indicators, solely assess the costs and proceeds of the credit granting business to small enterprises.
Article 24 A bank shall construct an incentive and constraint mechanism, work out a special performance assessment, reward and punishment mechanism, increase the sources allocation strength, give prominence to the positive incentives to branches and credit granting staff, and may draw a certain proportion of the net profits from the credit granting business to small enterprises as rewards to the frontline operating staff.
A bank shall incorporate the conditions about granting credits to small enterprises into the assessment scope of its branches, and the assessment indicators shall include the economic value added a branch has created, number of newly added and existing households that have been granted with credits, number of deals and amount, credit quality and management level, etc.
A client service manager may be assessed according to the business amount together with the performance contribution and asset quality, and any other small enterprise credit granting staff member may be assessed by linking his remunerations with his business, benefits, credit quality and other comprehensive performance indicators.
Article 25 A bank shall reinforce the credit awareness of small enterprises by incentive and constraint measures; and may give preferences in the aspects of credit amount, term, interest rate and security mode to the small enterprises with a good credit status, and may extend the term of loans or reorganize the loans to those small enterprises that are normally operated and pay interests on schedule, and may, in addition to risk disposal measures, adopt the default information circulation measures against the small enterprises with a bad credit status.
Article 26 The CBRC shall implement incentive policies to the banks' granting of credits to small enterprises. A commercial bank, which has outstanding performances in the granting of credits to small enterprises, may be approved to add branches and outlets. A local corporate banking financial institution, which has outstanding performances in the granting of credits to small enterprises, may be approved to add branches and outlets in other regions.
Article 27 A bank shall formulate a due diligence survey system for granting credits to small enterprises as well as a corresponding accountability and exemption system, and shall, according to the requirements as set down in the Guidelines for Due Diligence in the Granting of Credits to Small Enterprises by Commercial Banks （for Trial Implementation） （No. 69 [2006] of the CBRC）, discard traditional practices of imposing liabilities as for a single sum of loans or on a single borrower, impose or exempt corresponding liabilities on relevant persons in-charge on the basis of assessing overall quality and comprehensive compensation and according to actual situation and relevant legal provisions, so as to realize the exemption of liabilities from those persons that have diligently fulfilled their duties and the imposition of liabilities on those persons that have neglected their duties.
Article 28 A bank shall establish a professional personal training mechanism, actively study and refer to the domestic and international successful experiences in the granting of credits to small enterprise, strengthen the business training to the staff responsible for granting credits to small enterprises level by level, promote the post-related qualification authentication system and the post holding certificate system, make the staff update their ideals, grasp the characteristics of the credit granting business to small enterprise and the risk controlling methods, enhance the ability to promote products, collect, sort out and analyze financial and non-financial information, be familiar with the requirements of due diligence, and gradually form a good small enterprise credit grating culture.
Article 29 A bank shall submit relevant information about the granting of credits to small enterprises, including the credit amount, households and asset qualities, etc. of small enterprises, to the CBRC and its attached office as required.
Article 30 A bank may formulate specific implementation measures according to these Guiding Opinions and in light of its actualities.
Article 31 These Guiding Opinions shall come into force as of the date of promulgation. The Guiding Opinions about the Banks' Granting of Loans to Small Enterprises （No.54 [2005] of the CBRC） shall be simultaneously repealed.
