MYbank unveils five-year plan to reach more SMEs across China via SCF and rural lending

The five-year plan details MYbank’s aspirations to work with partners across multiple sectors to better serve SMEs across China. Key measures and initiatives MYbank will implement as part of the plan include:

• Leveraging supply chain finance to support 10 million SMEs who traditionally have been unserved or underserved in the market.
• Working with 2,000 county and village managers to provide rural lending to SMEs in need.
• Collaborating with financial institution partners to distribute interest-free vouchers for business loans totaling RMB 300 billion.
• Serving 40 million female business owners and providing them with more economic opportunities.

Established on June 25, 2015, MYbank is one of the leading private online commercial banks in China focused on serving SMEs and farmers. It was the first bank in China to establish its core banking system entirely on the cloud without any physical branches. Leveraging Ant Group’s AI, computing and risk management technologies, MYbank also pioneered the “310 model” for SME financing, which offers collateral-free business loans that take less than three minutes to apply for on a mobile phone, less than one second to approve, and requires zero human intervention. SMEs in China supported by the “310 model” have shown resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 98% of them repaying their loans on time. 

According to data from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), SMEs account for over 90% of business entities in China and contribute to 80% of urban employment and 60% of Chinese GDP. As of June 2020, MYbank and its partners have served 29 million SMEs in China, including street vendors. Their average loan size is RMB 36,000 (approximately USD 5,000) and 80% of them had previously never received business loans from a bank.

Leveraging Ant Group’s blockchain technology, Log56.com, a Chinese logistics platform with 70,000 registered corporate users, has helped 200,000 truck drivers and micro logistics business owners apply for loans from MYbank and its financial institutional partners. Ant’s blockchain technology helped to ensure key logistics information, such as order and execution numbers, are tamper-proof. This also reduced costs related to risk management and helped MYbank’s AI to calculate an accurate line of credit for SME operators on the platform.

MYbank has implemented a series of measures to help small and micro business owners overcome the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including waiving or lowering interest rates. In March, MYbank partnered with 100 banks to launch the “Contactless Loans” initiative to support SMEs as they resume operations and overcome the impact of COVID-19. According to the China Banking Association, the initiative had served over 10 million SMEs and extended loans totaling RMB 400 billion as of the end of April 2020.