BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's banks have rolled out a series of measures to help firms taking the lead in fighting against the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak to raise funds for orderly work and production resumption, reported the Economic Information Daily on Thursday.
It is learned that since the epidemic outbreak, multiple banks in China have opened a green passage to improve approval efficiency and meanwhile increased credit support to help firms in short of funds.
"Purchasing raw materials and letting workers return to work during the holiday all need a large sum of money", said an executive from a protective products-producing company in Jingzhou, a prefecture-level city in central China's Hubei province, the epidemic center.
According to the executive, with the support of local government and banks, the company managed to get loans from two banks within three days, helping secure the timely production of protective products which have already been transported to Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei as well as the very center of the epidemic.
This case is only an epitome of the recent banking support to enterprises.
Data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) showed that China's banks had provided over 537 billion yuan of credit support as of February 14 noon to help companies restore production amid the fight against the epidemic.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), for example, set up a special fund of 2 billion yuan to support epidemic prevention and control.
Qingdao Rural Commercial Bank added a separate credit of 1 billion yuan in addition to the 7.9 billion yuan of loans newly issued in January to provide financing support for companies involved in the fight against the epidemic.
Besides, banks also mobilized funds by issuing bonds and wealth management products among other diversified means which were well-received by the market.
The one-year anti-epidemic bonds issued respectively by the China Development Bank, the Agricultural Development Bank of China and the Export-Import Bank of China all saw their subscription multiples exceed ten.
Investors' active subscription of such bonds also led to significant decreases in the bond interest rates which were lower than the market funds rates for the same period.
The Bank of Communications launched featured anti-epidemic wealth management products to raise funds for firms producing epidemic prevention supplies and other fields related to epidemic prevention and control. (Edited by Gu Shanshan)
A single purchase
