Multiple loan subsidy policies have undergone a round of "upgrades" at the beginning of the year. On January 20th, the Ministry of Finance and other departments issued several loan subsidy policies, optimizing the previous three subsidy policies for personal consumption loans, loans to service industry entities, and equipment renewal loans, while also newly implementing a loan subsidy policy for small and micro enterprises. Notably, after this optimization, the policy terms for personal consumption loans, loans to service industry entities, and equipment renewal loan subsidies have all been extended until the end of 2026. The policy updates feature numerous highlights, including the inclusion of credit card bill installment services into the scope of personal consumption loan subsidies, the increase of the maximum scale of new loans eligible for subsidies for a single service industry entity from 1 million yuan to 10 million yuan, and the raising of the equipment renewal loan subsidy standard from 1 percentage point to 1.5 percentage points. Furthermore, all small and micro private enterprises involved in the industrial chains of related key sectors and their upstream and downstream industries are expected to benefit from loan subsidies. Li Zichuan, a financial analysis expert at Diandian Data, stated that the intensive release of these policies sends a strong signal of "fiscal stimulus, targeted support, and direct reach to the end-user." This indicates that the government is no longer relying solely on large-scale infrastructure investment to drive growth; the current regulatory logic is rapidly shifting from pure supply-side expansion to two-way adjustment of both supply and demand, aiming to boost residents' willingness and confidence to consume by reducing the financing costs for micro entities. The scope of subsidies now includes credit card installments. Regarding the fiscal subsidy policy for personal consumption loans, this round of optimization involves aspects such as innovation in consumer finance, extension of the policy term, expansion of the supported scope, broadening of eligible sectors for subsidies, and an increase in the subsidy standard. The optimization supports handling institutions in innovating consumer credit products, strengthening coordination with offline supermarkets and online platforms, creating more new scenarios for financial support of consumption, and expanding the reach of the personal consumption loan subsidy policy. In terms of the supported scope, credit card bill installment services have been included, with an annual subsidy ratio of 1 percentage point. Regarding the sectors eligible for subsidies, this optimization breaks through previous restrictions. Consumption by residents in various sectors using personal consumption loans from handling institutions during the policy implementation period, as well as newly incurred credit card bill installments, can enjoy subsidies according to regulations after the handling institutions verify their authenticity and compliance. In terms of the subsidy standard, the previous requirements—a maximum subsidy of 500 yuan per single consumption instance and a cumulative subsidy cap of 1000 yuan per borrower for consumption under 50,000 yuan at a single handling institution—have been removed. However, the requirement for a maximum annual cumulative consumption subsidy of 3000 yuan per borrower at a single handling institution remains unchanged. Regarding handling institutions, beyond the previous six large state-owned commercial banks, twelve national joint-stock commercial banks, and five other personal consumer loan issuing institutions, city commercial banks, rural cooperative financial institutions, foreign-funded banks, consumer finance companies, and auto finance companies with a regulatory rating of 3A and above have been included in the scope of local subsidy policy handling institutions. The central government and provincial-level finances will bear 90% and 10% of the subsidy funds, respectively. Li Zichuan believes that the inclusion of credit card installments and the significant expansion of handling institutions essentially represent support for penetrating terminal consumption scenarios. On one hand, credit card installments are the most widely used credit tool for residents with the lowest access threshold; including them in subsidies can directly stimulate daily consumption of various scales, such as home appliances, decoration, and domestic services. On the other hand, adding city commercial banks, rural cooperative institutions, and consumer finance companies brings the institutional service side closer to county and grassroots markets. The central government bearing 90% of the subsidy funds demonstrates its strong support for consumption recovery, which can greatly alleviate local fiscal expenditure pressure, thereby ensuring the policy is implemented faithfully and without dilution, allowing the related policies to better benefit the public. Su Xiaorui, a senior researcher at Suxi Zhiyan, stated that the policy's removal of previous restrictions on consumption sectors releases three key signals: first, stabilizing long-term consumption expectations by extending the policy support period; second, further enhancing the policy's inclusivity by incorporating credit card installments and expanding handling institutions; and third, shifting from incentivizing major consumption to comprehensively supporting consumption, forming an important echo with the previous call for "greater efforts to boost consumption." Su Xiaorui believes that, from the perspective of practical policy implementation effects, implementing robust risk control measures and closely monitoring fund flows are crucial components. The current document already demonstrates a systematic, multi-layered risk prevention and control system involving collaboration between handling financial institutions, financial regulators, and fiscal departments: the first layer involves handling institutions, including banks and consumer finance companies, which need to strengthen monitoring of loan usage and fund flows and regularly report policy implementation; the second layer involves financial regulatory authorities, primarily responsible for strengthening daily supervision of such business at handling institutions; the third layer involves fiscal departments, which, while responsible for the allocation and settlement of subsidy funds, must also conduct joint spot checks with other relevant departments and impose penalties on non-compliant institutions. The maximum scale of subsidized loans available to a single entity has been increased to 10 million yuan. The loan subsidy policy for service industry entities has also undergone a wave of optimization. Regarding the subsidy ceiling, after this optimization, the maximum scale of new loans issued in 2026 eligible for subsidies for a single entity can reach 10 million yuan, whereas previously the maximum was 1 million yuan. In terms of supported sectors, based on the previous eight consumption categories, three new categories—digital, green, and retail consumption—have been included in the policy's support scope. The digital sector corresponds to the "Internet and related services" and "digital content services" industry categories in the "National Economic Industry Classification." The green sector corresponds to the "property management" industry category meeting the "building energy efficiency and green building" classification standard, the "car rental" and "other road transport auxiliary activities" categories meeting the "green transportation" standard, and the "loading and unloading," "basic postal services," "courier services," and "other delivery services" categories meeting the "green logistics" standard, as defined in the relevant notice. The retail sector corresponds to the "retail trade" industry category in the "National Economic Industry Classification." The cultural and entertainment sector has been adjusted to correspond to industries in the "Cultural and Related Industries Classification (2018)" excluding those belonging to manufacturing sub-sectors. Regarding handling banks, in addition to the 21 national banks, city commercial banks, provincial-level rural commercial banks, provincial capital rural commercial banks, and foreign-funded banks with a financial regulatory rating of 3A and above have been newly added. Zhou Yiqin, founder of Guantai Consulting and a senior expert on financial regulatory policy, believes that compared to the previous eight categories, the addition of three new supported sectors significantly broadens the coverage. The digital sector relates to the current demand for digital transformation in the service industry, the green sector is connected to enterprises' low-carbon development needs, and the retail sector is closely tied to core public consumption. Combined with previously included categories like elderly care, this clearly resonates with the key focuses of high-quality banking development, such as green finance, pension finance, digital finance, and inclusive finance. Zhou Yiqin pointed out that this presents a mutually beneficial development opportunity for financial institutions to continuously promote supply-side structural reform in the service industry and guide business entities towards high-end, green, and digital transformation. Expanding the range of handling banks is core to promoting the policy's penetration and inclusivity, guiding various types of commercial banks to build a multi-level, widely covering service system, ensuring the subsidy policy directly reaches all eligible business entities. With a richer selection of handling banks, business entities can also choose financial institutions offering better interest rates, more convenient approval processes, and higher-quality services based on their own needs. Meanwhile, healthy competition among institutions will force improvements in service quality and cost optimization. The subsidy standard for equipment renewal loans has been raised to 1.5 percentage points. The equipment renewal loan fiscal subsidy policy released in June 2024 has also been optimized this time. Regarding the scope of support, when a business entity implements equipment renewal actions and a bank grants it a loan, the central government will provide a subsidy of 1.5 percentage points on the principal of the fixed-asset loan related to the equipment renewal project. The subsidy is calculated from the date of the loan disbursement and lasts for a maximum of 2 years. Simultaneously, the policy includes science and technology innovation loans newly issued by banks from 2026 onwards that are supported by the science and technology innovation and technological transformation relending policy into the scope of central government subsidy support. In terms of supported sectors, additions include construction and municipal facilities, energy-using equipment, aircraft materials, electronic information, work safety, facility agriculture, fishing vessels, cold chain facilities, grain and oil processing, waste recycling, small hydropower, consumer commercial facilities, artificial intelligence, elderly care, and other fields, increasing support for the renewal of high-end, intelligent, green, and digital equipment. Regarding handling banks, based on the previous 21 national banks, five city commercial banks—Bank of Beijing, Bank of Shanghai, Bank of Jiangsu, Bank of Nanjing, and Bank of Ningbo—have been newly added. In terms of the subsidy process, the allocation of subsidy funds adopts a "pre-allocation + settlement" method, and fiscal subsidies no longer require the loan to have obtained relending support. A loan subsidy policy for small and micro enterprises will be implemented. Among the policies released this time, in addition to the aforementioned optimizations, a new loan subsidy policy for small and micro enterprises will be implemented, which is expected to benefit all small and micro private enterprises involved in the industrial chains of related key sectors and their upstream and downstream industries. The applicable targets for the small and micro enterprise loan subsidy policy include fixed-asset loans granted to all small and micro private enterprises (including but not limited to those recommended by the small enterprise financing coordination mechanism or shared by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as quality small and micro enterprises) involved in the industrial chains of related key sectors and their upstream and downstream industries, as well as funds from new types of policy financial tools used in projects involving small and micro private enterprises. In terms of targeted sectors, support covers key industrial chains and their upstream and downstream industries related to new energy vehicles, industrial mother machines, pharmaceutical industry, medical equipment, basic software and industrial software, civil large aircraft, servers, mobile communication equipment, new displays, instruments and meters, industrial robots, rail transit equipment, ship and marine engineering equipment, agricultural machinery, etc. It also includes productive service sectors such as technology services, logistics services, information and software services, energy-saving and environmental protection services, productive leasing services, and business services; sectors like agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery, and agricultural product processing; and emerging fields represented by artificial intelligence. Regarding the subsidy standard, for eligible fixed-asset loans to small and micro private enterprises and funds from new policy financial tools used in projects involving small and micro private enterprises, disbursed by handling banks from January 1, 2026, the central government will provide an annualized subsidy support of 1.5 percentage points on the loan principal for a period not exceeding 2 years, with a maximum subsidized loan scale of 50 million yuan per single entity. The policy implementation period is initially set for one year and may be extended later depending on the situation. Furthermore, the same loan cannot enjoy duplicate subsidies from other central government subsidy policies. Regarding handling banks, these include the 21 national banks, as well as city commercial banks, provincial-level rural commercial banks, provincial capital rural commercial banks, and foreign-funded banks with a financial regulatory rating of 3A and above.
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