SME Financing Task Force Holds First Meeting

The Joint Task Force on Small and Medium Enterprise Financing, established by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Hong Kong Association of Banks, held its first meeting on September 5, 2024.

The meeting was co-chaired by Ruan Guoheng, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA, and Lam Wai-hung, Chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Banks. Representatives from the HKMA, the Hong Kong Association of Banks, and 14 banks active in small and medium-sized enterprise loans attended the meeting.

Discussion Highlights

• Measures to Support Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Banks participating in the meeting stated that they will ensure the continuation and implementation of the nine measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises launched earlier and continue to provide the necessary financing and support for the sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprises.
• Risk Appetite: Banks participating in the meeting stated that they have not changed their risk appetite for small and medium-sized enterprise financing, nor have they changed their credit approval criteria.
• Tolerance and Fair Hospitality: The HKMA and banks have received over 70 inquiries and cases from different industries, including claims that the information provided by banks is not clear enough, requests for banks to review credit approval results, and requests for continued support measures.
• Manpower and Resources: Participating banks have committed to allocating sufficient manpower and resources to process “Credit Approval Review Arrangement” cases and respond to customers within one month.
• Residential Property Mortgage Loan Approval Process: Participating banks promise to notify customers of the loan approval results within 14 days after collecting application documents, improving the transparency, efficiency, and customer experience of the residential property mortgage loan approval process.

The group agrees that banks need to maintain consistent and effective risk management while taking into account the protection of depositors. Therefore, if the delinquency situation of individual loans does not improve after forbearance or restructuring, banks will inevitably need to handle it appropriately, but will ensure that they communicate with customers in an inclusive manner.

The group also discussed how to further promote banks to support the development, upgrading, and transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises. In this regard, the HKMA and the banking industry will continue to communicate more closely with the business community and organize relevant seminars and other activities in the next two months to help small and medium-sized enterprises make good use of data and technology to improve productivity.

The group was jointly established by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Hong Kong Association of Banks in August 2024 to further promote bank financing support for small and medium-sized enterprises from the case and industry levels.

Participating banks include Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), Bank of East Asia, China CITIC Bank (International), China Construction Bank (Asia), Citibank, Dah Sing Bank, DBS Bank (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia), Overseas Chinese Bank (Hong Kong), PAO Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong).