① On April 10, the Bank of China issued an announcement to establish a technology finance center in Beijing. The Bank of China also pointed out that it will simultaneously establish technology finance centers in 24 provincial and municipal branches including Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shanghai in line with the national regional science and technology innovation development plan; ② The Bank of China is not the first major state-owned bank to announce the establishment of a technology finance center. On January 12 this year, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Technology Finance Center was established in Beijing.
Financial Services Association, April 11 (Reporter Peng Kefeng) How to plan the layout of the five major articles? Looking at it now, large state-owned banks are continuously testing the waters for institutional and institutional reforms.
On April 10, the Bank of China published an article stating that in order to carry out detailed “five major articles”, the Bank of China set up a technology finance center in Beijing. The Financial Services Association reporter took notice. This is the second major state-owned bank to act similarly since ICBC took the lead in officially announcing the establishment of a technology finance center at the beginning of this year.
In addition to Beijing, the Bank of China says it will establish technology finance centers in 24 provinces and cities
In the announcement, the Bank of China stated that the establishment of the Technology Finance Center is another powerful step for the bank to optimize the technology finance organization system, plan the development of technology finance in an integrated manner, and help build a strong financial country. The center will comprehensively upgrade the iterative financial service model, respond quickly to customer and market needs through a more efficient and orderly business coordination mechanism, focus on the shortcomings and weaknesses of financial services, continue to improve full-life cycle, diversified and relay financial services, and effectively promote the financial system to better adapt to the innovation needs of technology enterprises in the new era.
The Bank of China also pointed out that in line with the national regional science and technology innovation development plan, it will simultaneously establish technology finance centers in 24 provincial and municipal branches including Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shanghai, and focus on building technology finance franchise branches or special outlets in some regions where science and technology resources are concentrated, and an “all-branch-branch” technology finance multi-level organizational system will be built as a whole to create the first tier of high-quality technology finance development.
According to another report, by the end of March 2024, the Bank of China had provided 75,000 technology companies with credit support of about 1.7 trillion yuan, and the total supply of comprehensive financial services exceeded 630 billion yuan.
What are the current key tasks of Beijing's technology finance center? How will technology finance centers in 24 provinces and cities be assessed in the future? Today, the Financial Services Association reporter contacted relevant people from the Bank of China about this. The other party said they would inquire about the specific situation. However, at the time of publication, the reporter had received no response.
ICBC took the lead in testing the waters at the beginning of the year, and some branches have made progress
A Financial Services Association reporter's inquiry revealed that the Bank of China is not the first major state-owned bank to announce the establishment of a technology finance center. On January 12 this year, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Technology Finance Center was established in Beijing. Chen Siqing, then chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, also attended the event.
At the time, the Industrial and Commercial Bank stated that it will continue to make efforts in improving the organizational structure, strengthening services in key areas, optimizing financial supply, and strengthening risk management, control and institutional guarantees to continuously improve the technology finance service system to help technology-based enterprises develop with high quality.
A Financial Services Association reporter learned that as early as 1984, the Industrial and Commercial Bank set up the Technology Reform and Credit Department to specifically serve technological innovation and technological innovation. According to ICBC's official data, over the past 40 years, ICBC has served more than 100,000 key science and technology projects.
Furthermore, on January 22 this year, the Technology Finance Center of the Changsha Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was inaugurated. Huang Kun, member of the Hunan Branch Party Committee, Vice President, Party Committee Secretary and Governor of the Changsha Branch, attended the inauguration ceremony and unveiled the Technology Finance Center. On March 15 this year, ICBC Technology Finance Center (Suzhou) was inaugurated. Representatives of high-quality venture capital institutions and science and innovation enterprises in Suzhou attended the press conference and signed cooperation agreements. This means that recently, ICBC has been steadily advancing the technology finance layout in major domestic cities.
In addition to ICBC and the Bank of China, the Financial Services Association reporter also learned that on March 28, CCB held a licensing ceremony for the Technology Finance Innovation Center (Shenzhen) in Shenzhen, and the Shenzhen branch was awarded the title of “China Construction Bank Technology Finance Innovation Center (Shenzhen)”. According to reports, the head office of China Construction Bank will give the Shenzhen branch differentiated policies such as credit approval and product innovation to further explore new paths for the development of technology finance. However, at the head office level, no information on the establishment of the CCB Technology Finance Center has been released yet.
The annual reports of many major banks also revealed actions related to technology finance
A reporter from the Financial Services Association inquired about the 2023 annual reports of major state-owned banks and found that some major banks have also published “bills” for technology finance.
According to the Agricultural Bank, it has established a science and innovation finance division organization system on a pilot basis in the branches of the six science and innovation finance reform pilot zone cities, 19 technology finance service centers have been set up in regional innovation highlands, and more than 200 technology finance franchises have also been set up in science and technology innovation clusters such as high-tech zones, economic development zones, and science and technology parks in various regions.
According to the Bank of Trade and Communications, it has launched the “Bank of Communications Science and Technology Innovation” brand to create an exclusive service plan covering the four major product systems of “stock debt loans and leases” and the “Chain Park” ecosystem.
According to the Postbank, at the end of last year, the Postbank served 69,400 technology-based enterprises, an increase of 28%, with a market coverage rate of more than 10%. The loan balance for technology-based enterprises was 326.8 billion yuan, an increase of 38%. The loan growth rate for small and medium-sized enterprises with excellent service expertise and technology was in a leading position in the industry.