The Chinese central government’s top financial authorities have jointly released a raft of measures to boost financial support during efforts to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.
On 1 February the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the China Banking and Insurance Securities Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) jointly issued the “Notice Concerning Further Strengthening Financial Support for the Prevention and Control of the Novel Coronavirus Infectious Pneumonia Disease” (关于进一步强化金融支持防控新型冠状病毒感染肺炎疫情的通知).
According to state-owned media the Notice proposes a total of 30 measures for “further strengthening financial support for work to prevent and control the disease.”
The Notice calls for the provision of differentiated and preferential financial services to those regions, industries and enterprises that are more heavily impacted by the novel coronavirus.
Key measures include:
- The extension or deferral of loans for those enterprises that meet with repayment difficulties,
- Appropriate reductions in lending rates and increases in credit loans and long and medium-term loans to support enterprises to “overcome the disease,”
- The cancellation of counter-guarantee requirements by government financial guarantee and re-guarantee entities at all levels.
Beijing has also called for financial institutions to “rationally extend” repayment periods and make flexible adjustments to mortgages, credit cards and other personal loan repayments for individuals who are treated in hospital or placed under observation as a result of the disease, participate in disease prevention work or who lose income sources as a result of the impacts of the disease.
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