国内英语新闻:China's banking regulator encourages financial support for small firms

BEIJING, Oct.25 (Xinhua) -- The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the country's top banking regulator, on Tuesday revealed detailed plans to encourage financial support for the country's small and micro-sized enterprises.

In a supplementary notice issued to its previous support plan for financing small enterprises, the CBRC said banks should ensure that the growth of loans to small firms will not be slower than that of the average lending, and the growth should be higher than the level of the previous year.

Also, commercial banks should give more support to enterprises that borrow less than 5 million yuan (787,401 U.S. dollars), and increase tolerance for non-performing loans to small and micro-sized firms, it said.

The regulator has set detailed rules for the establishment of financial institutions serving small businesses, and encouraged banks to create financial instruments to support the development of small high-tech enterprises.

The CBRC has also allowed banks to issue special financial bonds to boost financing for small businesses.

By the end of August, outstanding loans to small and micro-sized enterprises stood at 14.6 trillion yuan, accounting for 27.2 percent of total lending.