PBOC Shanghai Head Office issues supportive measures for private businesses

SHANGHAI - The People's Bank of China (PBOC) Shanghai Head Office has issued 20 measures to further improve financial services for Shanghai's private and technologically innovative businesses.

To facilitate the healthy development of Shanghai's private economy, the Shanghai Head Office of the country's central bank, will make efforts to boost the morale of the city's private businesses, alleviate financing difficulties and create a fairer and more convenient financing environment.

Specifically, the PBOC Shanghai Head Office will provide refinancing limits of no less than 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) for Shanghai's private and small businesses in technological innovation and high-end manufacturing, and handle rediscounts of no more than 15 billion yuan for such businesses.

The new measures will waive the guarantee of start-up business loans below 500,000 yuan. The bank will expand borrowers' maximum loan amount from 1 million yuan to 2 million yuan.

The new policy also strengthens the incentive mechanism on credit assessment and cuts down commercial lenders' average interest rates for small and micro businesses by 1 percentage point from the level recorded in the first quarter, the bank said.