China Minsheng Banking Corp, the nation’s first privately-owned bank, will change its lending focus to small-and medium-sized enterprises instead of concentrating on larger companies, state media reported. Minsheng chairman Dong Wenbiao said “the bank intends to expand our credit lines to private companies, as unlike the big State-owned enterprises, they are largely underserved.” Dong said the bank had set a loan target of renminbi 100 billion (US$14 billion) for small enterprises this year. China’s SMEs have complained that they were left out of the government’s stimulus package where most loans and financial assistance targeted state-owned enterprises. Minsheng’s default ratio stood at 0.82% as of September 2009, despite concerns that loans to small enterprises are more risky.
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