MYbank shortens payment cycles for small and micro businesses in the lead up to this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

Hangzhou, China--(Antara/Business Wire)- MYbank, a leading online private commercial bank in China with a focus on serving small and micro businesses, today announced a program to provide RMB 400 billion of collateral-free credit to businesses in need as they gear up for this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.

As part of the dedicated program, MYbank is offering a total of RMB 200 billion in short-term loans to help small and micro business owners overcome the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This enables business owners, particularly smaller vendors with more immediate capital needs, to receive payments in full once buyers place their pre-orders, in turn shortening the payment cycle and turnover by up to about 20 days.

“For many SMEs across China, the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival this year has added significance and presents an important opportunity to strengthen business continuity and growth,” said Mr. Jin Xiaolong, President of MYbank. “We are dedicated to supporting them at this critical time and to alleviate turnover pressure by extending our collateral-free financing offer to businesses that have received pre-sale orders.”

The financing service, in line with MYbank’s commitment to supporting the sustainable growth of SMEs, is made available to merchants ahead of the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. Many consider the event to be their single biggest growth driver of the year.

Established in 2015, MYbank is one of the leading private online commercial banks in China focused on serving SMEs and farmers. It was the first bank in China to establish its core banking system entirely on the cloud without any physical branches. Leveraging Ant Group’s AI, computing and risk management technologies, MYbank also pioneered the “310 model” for SME financing, which offers collateral-free business loans that take less than three minutes to apply for on a mobile phone, less than one second to approve, and requires zero human intervention.

SMEs in China supported by the “310 model” have shown resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic, with 98% of them repaying their loans on time as of June 2020.

According to data from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), SMEs account for over 90% of business entities in China and contribute to 80% of urban employment and 60% of Chinese GDP. As of June 2020, MYbank and its partners have served 29 million SMEs in China, including street vendors. Their average loan size is RMB 36,000 (approximately USD$5,000).

Sarah Dai

sarah.dai@antgroup.com