MYbank, an online private commercial bank under Ant Financial Services Group, stated in its annual report released today that it has served 20.87 million small and micro businesses in China as of the end of 2019.
As part of the Star Plan launched in June 2018, MYbank has worked with over 400 financial partners to provide business loans to Chinese SMEs as of 2019. 80% of MYbank loan users had previously never received business loans from banks.
The average outstanding loan size for MYbank users was RMB 31,000 (approximately USD 4,300) in 2019, an increase of nearly 20% compared to last year, reflecting robust growth among SMEs in China. MYbank plans on extending credit lines to 70% of small and micro businesses in China in 2020, up from 50% in 2019.
The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio for MYbank’s SME business loans has consistently been at around 1%, which is significantly lower than the industry average of 3.22% in 2019, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.
“Small and micro businesses constitute an essential pillar of our economy, and we are proud to have supported over 20 million small and micro businesses as of 2019. Our primary goal in 2020 is to continue to enable the sustainable growth of SMEs and empower them to overcome these challenging times and thrive,”
says Mr. Jin Xiaolong, President of MYbank.
“This underscores our confidence in the resilience of small enterprises across the country as they resume work and life.”
According to China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, as of February 2020, there are over 83.53 million individually-owned businesses registered in China, employing over 200 million people in total.
Over the past few years, SMEs have contributed to more than 60% of China’s GDP and 80% of urban employment. MYbank has implemented a series of measures to help small and micro business owners overcome the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
Providing 12-month loans totalling RMB 10 billion to online merchants from Hubei Province registered on Taobao and Tmall. These loans are interest-free for the first three months, with interest rates lowered by 20% for the remaining nine months.
Waiving interest rates for 360,000 offline micro merchants in Wuhan for the first month and cutting interest rates by 20% for Hubei merchants outside of the city.
Partnering with 100 banks to launch the “Contactless Loans” initiative to support 10 million SMEs as they resume operations and overcome the impact of COVID-19.
Ms. Qiu Mengyi, a 26-year-old owner of a nail salon in Wuhan, applied for a business loan from MYbank when the city came out of lockdown in early April.
“Even though my business will not be completely back to normal in six months, the financial support we have received will help get us back on track,”
said Ms. Qiu. Mr. Mo Jiaxuan, a self-made owner of a claw machine company, also successfully applied for a business loan from MYbank. He also launched a claw machine mini-program on Alipay that enabled him to reach and engage with over 900 million users on the digital lifestyle platform and drive traffic to his online storefront.
MYbank’s Star Plan aims to strengthen SME financing over a three-year period. Through the plan, MYbank will enable 1,000 financial institution partners to provide more cost-effective financing services to 30 million SMEs in China.
MYbank also pioneered the “310 model” for SME financing, which offers collateral-free business loans that take less than three minutes to apply for on a mobile phone, less than one second to approve, and requires zero human intervention, using proprietary AI and risk management technologies.
