Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    SHENZHEN’S banking sector grew steadily over the past five years while innovations helped small firms and lending helped startups, the city’s banking regulator said late Tuesday.

    The total assets of Shenzhen banks stood at 6.83 trillion yuan (US$1.05 trillion) at the end of last year, ranking third nationwide and up 96 percent from five years ago, according to Chen Feihong, deputy director of the China Banking Regulatory Commission Shenzhen Office.

    Shenzhen banks’ nonperforming loan (NPL) rate was 1.12 percent at the end of the year, lower than the nation’s average of 1.67 percent and down 0.37 percent from five years ago.

    Shenzhen banks earned nearly 96 billion yuan, 1.33 times that in 2010. They extended loans totaling 3.24 trillion yuan at the end of last year, 93 percent higher than five years ago.

    Loans extended to small and micro businesses, at 531 billion yuan at the end of March, rose 20 percent from a year ago. Shenzhen banks served 211,000 small and micro businesses, 15,000 more than a year ago. Roughly 86 percent of small and micro businesses applying for bank loans can obtain them, Chen said.

    “We extended loans totaling 35.4 billion yuan to nearly 230,000 small and micro business clients in Shenzhen by the end of March,” said Wu Xinjun, president of China Minsheng Banking Corp.’s Shenzhen division. “We have a market share of 8 percent in Shenzhen and our NPL rate for loans for small and micro businesses is only 0.2 percent.”

    In addition to traditional banks, newly created Internet-based banks and financial institutions are helping small firms grow, according to Chen.

    WeBank and MUCFC.com, which embodies Shenzhen’s innovations in the financial sector, extended 40 billion yuan in loans to nearly 10 million clients across more than 300 Chinese cities by the end of March.

    “Our clients are mostly in Shenzhen,” said Huang Liming, vice president of WeBank. “One of our major products covers more than 4 million clients in the city.”