Banks, insurers lend more support to real economy

Banks and insurers have lent much support to the real economy over the first three quarters, according to top industry officials.

In the first three quarters, yuan loans increased by 16.3 trillion yuan (US$2.46 trillion), an increase of 2.6 trillion yuan year on year, and new bond investment by banks and insurance institutions exceeded 8 trillion yuan, said Liang Tao, vice chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Loans to private enterprises jumped by 5.4 trillion yuan. And money lent to the manufacturing sector grew by 2 trillion yuan, 2.6 times that for the whole year of 2019.

Among that, bank loans to small and micro enterprises increased by 3 trillion yuan as of the end of September, an increase of 1.2 trillion compared with a year ago, benefiting 31.28 million small businesses, according to Liu Guoqiang, vice governor of the People's Bank of China.

The average interest rate of newly granted inclusive loans in September was 4.92 percent, down 0.96 percentage points from last December.

The financial system has helped firms save a total of 1.25 trillion yuan in the first 10 months of this year through cuts in interest rates and bank charges, and other monetary policy tools, Liu noted.

It is expected that the country will meet its annual target to help businesses save 1.5 trillion yuan, he added.

Meanwhile, insurance companies saw their total assets grow by 12.4 percent to hit 22.4 trillion yuan, with the comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio being at 242.6 percent, the top banking and insurance regulator said.

And the insurance industry made a total payment of 998.9 billion yuan in the January to September period.