OREANDA-NEWS. November 23, 2011. The burgeoning online merchandise marts over the past few years riding the tide of electronic commerce in China offer new business opportunities for small and micro enterprises. Merchants in online merchandise marts urgently need access to more convenient, highly efficient bank loans to cater for their frequent use of funds since they conduct their businesses entirely online. In view of this, ICBC launched the online merchandize mart finance service, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

The new service allows small and micro enterprises to apply for loans online by simply signing up Internet Banking and use the electronic warehouse receipt to apply. ICBC system will automatically process all customer applications and determine the loan limit referencing the warehouse receipts pledged by the customers, loan amount they required and their past credit records. As related, this is the first service ever launched in the country for customers to apply for loans from application, contract signing, to loan drawdown and repayment, all steps processed online.

To a bank, there are unique advantages to offer loan service entirely online relative to the conventional, said an executive with ICBC. First, the interactive processing between the two systems of online merchandize mart and ICBC enables small and micro enterprises to apply for loans just through the merchandize mart platform. Every step from application, contract signing, to drawdown and repayment of loan can be completed online, which leads to great convenience and high efficiency. Leveraging the information provided by the online merchandize platform, ICBC can narrow down the merchandize traded for spot delivery only, eliminating the speculation against electronic bids. Moreover, the system monitors in real-time the closing prices every day and the status of warehouse goods. Accurate risk positioning based on the back-office alert model creates a new risk management model. Another point is the ICBC loans to buyers for prepayment of goods, which are different from the loans pledged by buyers' own goods currently offered in the market. These ICBC loans address the bottleneck of many small traders who lack funding to buy goods for sale.

Incomplete statistics show that there are more than 200 online merchandize marts in China, generating an annual turnover of over RMB 8 trillion and presenting huge potential for the need of bank loans. In the next step, ICBC will build closer partnership with many more online merchandize marts with strong influence in the industries, wide customer coverage, large online transaction turnover and standardized business management. Continuous efforts will be spent on the product functions. While keeping pace with online markets of different industries, different trading models, ICBC strives to offer even better financial services and support to all the small and micro enterprises engaged in online merchandize trades.