Tencent-backed digital lender WeBank has won an award for its contribution to efforts to contain the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in China.
The All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce has just released a list of 1000 “advanced private enterprises that made an outstanding contribution to resisting the Novel Coronavirus pandemic in 2020.”
WeChat received an award for its efforts to “actively provide financial relief measures and fully support the resumption of work and production by micro and small-enterprises” during key periods for containment and suppression of COVID-19 in China.
On 13 February 2020 WeBank took the lead in providing loan relief measures, including instituting a three month period during which micro and small-enterprises would only be required to make interest payments without any principal repayments for their loans.
WeBank also provided specialist discounts and interest reductions to borrowers in the provinces of Hubei, Guangdong, Henan and Zhejiang, and increased its lending quotas for pharmaceutical clients and other companies involved in disease containment efforts.
The digital lender made use of the Chinese central bank’s re-loan and re-discount policies to help support micro-and-small enterprises weather the economic impacts of the pandemic.
As of the end of September 2020 WeBank’s small-business support re-loan lending balance was in excess of 2 billion yuan, reaching over 4700 micro-and-small enterprises.
