One of China’s three policy banks is expected to provide scholastic loans to over 4 million disadvantaged students in 2019.
The China Development Bank (CDB) announced on 15 July that it expected to provide over 30 billion yuan in student-assistance loans this year, helping to support 4.4 million students hailing from economically disadvantaged households.
CDB has already provided nearly 200 billion yuan in scholastic loans to Chinese students from disadvantaged households on over 30 million occasions.
The bank’s lending policies are subject to the guidance of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).
CDB’s student assistance loans have a nationwide coverage rate of 81%, encompassing 26 province-level administrative entities and 2300 counties in China.
In order to facilitate the lending process CDB currently only requires a personal written undertaking from students that they hail from disadvantaged backgrounds in order to qualify for funding, as opposed to stamped documentation from government authorities.
CDB refers to this process as “making one undertaking, filling in one form, and running one trip” (承诺一次、填一张表、跑一趟路).
The bank has also established a 24-hour hotline to provide prospective scholastic borrowers with information on its student loan program.
