BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chinese banking institutions has provided more than 953.5 billion yuan of credit support to combat the epidemic by Wednesday, reported Xinhua Finance quoting Xiao Yuanqi, the spokesman for China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).
Xiao made the remarks on a press conference of the State Council on Wednesday, saying that CBIRC, since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19), has cranked up credit support in epidemic prevention and control-related fields.
As Xiao introduced, CBIRC encouraged banks and insurers to meet financing demand for healthcare and epidemic prevention and control, medical products manufacturing and procurement, and public healthcare infrastructure.
China's financial institutions have also been backed by the sector regulator to provide credits with preferential interest rates by utilizing low-cost special relending fund.
A basket of measures such as extending loan repayment term, cutting loan rates, increasing unsecured lending and mid- and long-term loans were taken to help relevant enterprises fight against the epidemic.
During the epidemic, CBIRC also strengthened support to private and small- and micro-sized enterprises. Many banking institutions adjusted the lending rates down by 0.5 percentage point for small- and micro-sized enterprises in Hubei. (Edited by Duan Jing, duanjing@xinhua.org)
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