China banking regulator eases lending rules for small businesses

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has released new rules governing the lending activities of banks to small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that seek to lower banks' capital requirement and make it potentially cheaper for banks to fund these assets under Basel II. The move is relevant to loans of less than 5 million yuan ($772,000). Some banks have already been building up lending to this segment.

The banking regulator issued a notification last week, Notification on the CBRC's