Inclusive Finance
China CITIC Bank regarded inclusive finance as a strategic focus and included it in the new Three-year Development Plan and the “342 Action Plan for Developing Core Business Capabilities”, having shaped an ideological consensus and a conscious intention to act across the whole Bank to support small and micro enterprises and develop inclusive finance. It set up an inclusive finance management structure under which the Board of Directors is responsible for formulating strategic plans, and the senior management is responsible for implementation, to promote the steady and sound development of financial services for micro and small enterprises. As of the end of June 2023, the balance of inclusive loans to micro and small enterprises stood at RMB 507.892 billion, up RMB 61.9 billion from the end of the previous year, 7.14 percentage points higher than the growth of all other loans. The number of customers with loan balances was 260,000, an increase of 30,000 from the end of the previous year.
Institutional Mechanism Establishment
Strengthening top-level plan. The Board of Directors specified that the Strategic Development Committee is responsible for regularly or irregularly reviewing inclusive finance development plans and business plans, listening to special report on inclusive finance development, work plan, and special audit, and supervising and guiding the inclusive finance development; a Steering Group for Inclusive Finance headed by the Secretary of the Party Committeeis set up to hold special work meetings every year to coordinate planning and lead business development; an Inclusive Finance Task Force consisting of members from various departments is set up under the Steering Group, which holds regular working meetings every year to coordinate and accelerate policy implementation and business development.
Improving organizational structure. The Bank continued to improve the professional mechanism in the Head Office featuring six united organizations and branches featuring four centralized organizations, speed up the development of direct sales teams, full-time customer managers, product managers and professional approvers, and enhance the level of professional services.
Policy Resources Support
Strengthening planning and guidance. The Bank separated the inclusive credit plan of micro and small enterprises and broke it down into tier-1 branches, and increased credit support to Northeast and Northwest regions.
Improving assessment and incentive. The proportion of inclusive finance indicators in comprehensive performance assessment in the branches was kept at over 10%.The bank allocated special rewards, funds, and subsidies to channel policy benefits back into business development and fully mobilize the enthusiasm of branch offices.
Enhancing fee reductions and concessions. The Bank lowered loan interest rates to reduce refinancing costs, and turned “two prohibitions and two restrictions” to “four prohibitions” to reduce service fees for micro and small enterprises and individual businesses, and lowered the comprehensive financing costs of micro and small enterprises.
Implementing due diligence liability exemption. The Bank continued to improve the due diligence liability exemption management system and other supporting systems, specified NPL tolerance requirements, and implemented due diligence liability exemption for those eligible according to the negative list. The proportion of due diligence liability exemption in the first half of 2023 exceeded 99%.
Products and Services Innovation
Improving online services. The Bank constantly improved online channels such as mobile banking, online banking and WeChat banking. It enriched products on corporate online banking, displayed straightforwardly inclusive finance loan products on the platforms, and launched intelligent guidance for customers operating, thus effectively improving user experience and service efficiency.
Enriching specialty products. The Bank continued to optimize the “innovative pilot field” for inclusive finance products, upgraded the research and development of intelligent credit factories for product innovation, improved the efficiency of product and service innovation, innovatively rolled out online loan products such as "Youke e loan", and enriched the specialty product system of “CITIC Easy Loan”. It optimized the "Inclusive Smart Marketing" section, introduced the "AI-powered Coaching" feature, and enhanced the professionalism of grassroots services, and increased efforts to promote manufacturing industry loans, credit loans, first-time borrower loans, and interest-only refinancing.
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*The English version were translated based on the Simplified Chinese version. In case of any discrepancies among the versions, the Simplified Chinese version shall prevail.