OREANDA-NEWS. September 04, 2013. To implement the Guiding Opinions of the General Office of the State Council Concerning Supporting Economic Restructuring, Transformation and Upgrade with Finance, and to fulfill its responsibility as a large state-owned commercial bank in supporting the development of China’s real economy, Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) has issued the Guidance on Credit Policy for Urbanization (the Guidance).

This is the first comprehensive credit policy ABC has issued to support urbanization. The Guidance specifies the credit strategy, basic principles, priority of support, credit products, customer access, resource guarantee and targeted risk control measures of supporting urbanization.

Based on ABC’s experience in supporting urbanization, the Guidance fully integrates the current credit policy with products and procedures for serving urbanization in accordance with the requirements of new urbanization.

First, the guidelines of ABC’s credit support for new urbanization are clarified as “compliance, industrial support, classified guidance and controllable risk.” Second, the twelve categories of credit products for supporting urbanization are rearranged and integrated.

They include both traditional products for urban infrastructure building and innovative products for new projects such as urban village renovation. Credit support for employment and the consumption of new citizens and farmers is also highlighted in promoting “urbanization of people.”

Third, target areas of credit support and business priorities are specified and differentiated access standards are determined according to the degree of risk ascribed to different credit products. In addition, corresponding credit strategies and products are offered for different types of urbanization.
Furthermore, the Guidance specifies guarantee measures for credit scale and business procedures as well as authorization management to safeguard the credit support for urbanization. It also identifies risk control measures for urbanization credit businesses including project legal formalities, capital supervision, internal operation and monitoring analysis.

According to the requirements of the Guidance, ABC will improve and innovate in the exclusive credit product box for urbanization. It will also release comprehensive financial service proposals for different types of urbanization to ensure the effective implementation of credit support.