As the New Year around the corner, Mr. Liu, a private business owner engaged in building material business in Zouping County of Shandong Binzhou, was very happy when taking stocks on the last year. With the help of a petty loan of RMB 400,000 from local ICBC branch, Mr. Liu's business grew at a respective clip last year, chalking up the highest sales revenue record since opening to business.

The personal petty loan to Mr. Liu is a new type of ICBC business loan to individual industrial and commercial households in the counties launched in 2011. The loans are aimed at meeting the short-term funding gap for their production. In 2011, ICBC has provided personal petty loans to over 12,000 individual industrial and commercial households in the counties, totaling RMB 4.7 billion. On average, each individual industrial and commercial household receives around RMB 370,000, for their ad-hoc working capital, as well as the healthy growth of county economy.

China has 2800+ counties. Total area of counties makes up 93% of China's territory, and total population of counties is 73% of China's total population. Their economic development potential is huge, said an executive with ICBC. Study found out that many individual industrial and commercial households generally lack collateral/pledge to secure loan in the conventional way, a constraint to the fast growth of private enterprises in the counties. Last year, in light of the financial services required by this important group of customers, ICBC developed and launched the personal petty loan - a loan product featuring diversified guarantee options, unique customer evaluation and flexible repayment options. The new loans provide timely and effective financial support to many individual industrial and commercial households with good business conditions and good credibility.

As related, ICBC personal petty loans can be secured under two options - on credit or guarantee, no collateral or pledge is needed. Guarantee can be by natural persons, joint-guarantee by business owners or guarantee companies. The application procedures are simple and fast. The loans are generally within 6-month tenure, up to a year to align with the business activities and working capital of individual industrial and commercial households. The maximum amount of one loan is RMB 500,000. Besides, customers can choose a repayment method well-suited to its own cash positions. Repayments can be: repayment of principal and interest equally every month, repayment of principal equally every month, repayment of principal and payment of interest every week, payment of interest every month and repayment of principal one time, or "Repay Anytime" which is much more flexible.