China's banks finance more small companies

BEIJING -- Chinese banks gave more loans to small and micro-sized enterprises in 2012 to support their development, the China Banking Association said in a report on Friday.

The outstanding loans to the country's small and micro-sized enterprises stood at 14.77 trillion yuan ($2.35 trillion) as of the end of last year, accounting for 21.95 percent of the total outstanding loans in China's banking sector, the report said.

Bank loans to small and micro-sized enterprises increased 19.73 percent year on year in 2012. The growth was 4.09 percentage points higher than the average level of all bank loans last year.

China has more than 10 million such enterprises, but the country's banking institutions tended to be reluctant to lend to them over risk concerns.

A recent government report said that financial institutions will receive guidance to help step up support for small and micro-sized enterprises.