The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China plans to increase lending to small business firms by at least 15 percent in three years to deepen its foothold in this segment, the bank said yesterday.

The Beijing-based bank offered 282 billion yuan (US$41 billion) of loans to small firms in the first 10 months, a year-on-year rise of 9.8 percent, the country's biggest lender said yesterday.

ICBC had 47,274 small corporate clients by the end of September, accounting for more than half of its corporate customers. The bad loan ratio of lending to such customers came in at 1.28 percent, less than the average non-performing loan ratio of its corporate loans, the bank said.

About 84 percent of its small business lending are credit with collateral, which may explain partly for its low sour loan ratio. About 98 percent of the small business lending are short-term of less than one year.

It's difficult for small business to obtain lending without collateral or other secured assets. ICBC is not alone in targeting small businesses. Overseas banks and joint stock banks have marked out the segment to tap and develop by setting up independent small business centers or offering more products and services.

(Shanghai Daily February 3, 2009)