Baoshang Bank Limited, a joint-equity commercial bank based in the Inner Mongolia
autonomous region, launched a mobile phone lending platform to raise money for 15 business
projects in the region to help local residents fight against poverty.
Liu Xin, assistant president of the bank, said on Thursday: "Our bank sent four employees to
Inner Mongolia to work at the local government. They selected quality projects in that region
according to our requirements. Once the projects receive approval for bank loans, their information will be published on our online lending platform. We'll mobilize our staff to lend money
to the project initiators at a favorable one-year lending rate as low as 5 percent, making an effort to alleviate poverty."
The projects currently posted on the platform will raise money ranging from 60,000 to 500,000
yuan, in the aim of planting agricultural products including wheat, soybeans and hemp, raising
livestock such as pigs, chickens and sheep, or purchasing agricultural machinery.
In order to control lending risks, the projects are open to loans from the employees of Baoshang
Bank only. So far, 434 employees have lent 1,630,200 yuan, or 54 percent of the total amount of
money to be raised, benefiting 51 local residents.
Jia Qizhen, deputy director of the China Banking Regulatory Commission's Inner Mongolia
Office, said the regulator has pushed forward the establishment of 28 village and township banks
in 57 poverty-stricken county-level divisions and counties, of which the number of banking
institutions totaled 305.
As of the end of May, the balance of bank loans to agriculture-related businesses as well as small and medium-sized enterprises reached 709.7 billion yuan and 477.4 billion yuan
respectively in Inner Mongolia.