City's cloud system a boost for small firms

Banks in Shanghai announced on Monday that they are now connected to the city’s enterprise service cloud system, aiming to offer better financial services to the real economy, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The move will allow commercial lenders to gradually realize a “one-stop check" of credit products for SMEs, and have more direct communications with those companies, thereby improving “the asymmetry of information” between lenders and borrowers.

Shanghai launched a special cloud platform at the beginning of the year to offer all-round services for the city’s small firms, ranging from policy consulting to professional assistance in law and accounting.

Monday’s event also saw agreements signed between 15 financial institutions, including the Shanghai branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Pacific Life Insurance Co Ltd, with 15 privately-owned companies in industries such as advanced manufacturing, aerospace and biomedicine.

The cooperation will channel around 100 billion yuan (US$14.47 billion) of funding for 50 projects by means of project loans, investment and loan linkage and bond underwriting among other financial services and products.

Chen Mingbo, deputy secretary general of the Shanghai government, said sustained and healthy development of the private economy is of great significance to Shanghai's efforts to build itself into a modern international metropolis and he called for better integration of financial services with real economic development.