China Minsheng Bank steers loans to small businesses

BEIJING - China Minsheng Bank extended more than 6 trillion yuan worth of loans to small and micro-sized businesses over the past 10 years, said Zheng Wanchun, president of the bank.

More than 600,000 small and micro-sized businesses borrowed from the bank with average loans for each firm less than 1.6 million yuan ($230,434), according to the bank.

The bank runs more than 900 financial centers and 230 financial services stores for small businesses.

Over the past ten years, technology innovation has improved the bank's operational efficiency and brought about lower costs, with that helping to bring down financial costs for lenders, Zheng said.

He called for greater use of data technology to provide comprehensive financial services to customers.