China’s senior-most financial regulators hope to bring financial inclusion measures to some of the poorest parts of the country.
The People’s Bank of China, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission have just recently jointly released the “Opinions Concerning Financial Support for Poverty Alleviation in Deeply Impoverished Regions (关于金融支持深度贫困地区脱贫攻坚的意见), outlining a range of measures for expanding Chinese financial inclusion.
The Opinions require that Chinese financial authorities “strive to raise lending growth in deeply impoverished areas above the average growth rate for their respective provinces or municipalities each year until 2020” by “firmly supporting preferential use of new financial funds to satisfy [demand] in deeply impoverished areas, and preferential deployment of new financial services in deeply impoverished areas.”
The Opinions further call for “the expansion of direct financing channels in deeply impoverished areas…acceleration of approvals for qualified enterprises from deeply impoverished areas that engage in initial public offerings, and application of the ‘apply then examine, approve then issue’ (即报即审、审过即发) policy.”
China financial regulators flag support for qualified enterprises in deeply impoverished areas to be listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations, as well as support for such enterprises to issue a variety of debt instruments for fund-raising purposes, with the provision of fee discounts or exemptions under various circumstances.
