City's banking sector total assets reach ¥12T

As of the end of this June, the total assets of Shenzhen's banking sector had climbed 9.4% year on year to 12 trillion yuan (US$1.68 trillion). The balance of local and foreign currency deposits at the city's financial institutions reached 11.97 trillion yuan, and the balance of domestic and foreign currency loans reached 8.22 trillion yuan, up 1.9% and 11.6%, respectively, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

Currently, Shenzhen ranks third in the country in terms of its banking sector's total assets and the amounts of deposits and loans.

Since the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in 1980, the city has kept rolling out pioneering practices in the banking sector and flourished in its development.

In the 1980s, the top four Chinese banks — Bank of China (BOC), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), China Construction Bank (CCB) and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) opened their Shenzhen branches one after another. In 1982, the city introduced the first overseas bank — Nanyang Commercial Bank Shenzhen Branch — after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

In the following years, a wide array of banks has settled in Shenzhen.

Riding on its leading technological innovation, Shenzhen took the lead in China to set up the first digital bank — WeBank — in 2014. Last year, the total assets under WeBank's management broke the threshold of 1 trillion yuan. Up to now, the bank has served over 340 million individual customers and nearly 2.8 million small and micro businesses and has become one of the top 100 banks in China and the top 1,000 banks in the world.

Shenzhen's banking sector has now diversified, with comprehensive distribution of State-owned, joint-equity, urban commercial, rural commercial and rural banks, as well as a digital bank.

Over the past 10 years, Shenzhen's banking institutions have positively implemented the country's measures to serve the real economy, increasing credit limits to major fields such as infrastructure projects, science and innovation, specialized and sophisticated companies, and green development industry.

By the end of June, the balance of loans of the city's strategic emerging industry and technological companies reached 644.54 billion yuan and 788.04 billion yuan, respectively.

The city's banking industry also strengthened support to small and micro-sized companies. Loans to these companies have grown 21.47% annually in the last 10 years, with balance for their loans exceeding 2 trillion yuan by the end of June.

To satisfy the demand of customers, the banking institutions have set up special service windows for the elderly and organized activities and events to promote financial knowledge.

In another development, the total premium income of insurance companies and institutions in Shenzhen amounted to 118.7 billion yuan in the first three quarters, up 6.93% year on year, which is 0.63 percentage points higher than that in the first half of this year. The insurance premium income from property insurance and life insurance companies increased by 7.01% and 6.9% to 34.55 billion yuan and 84.15 billion yuan, respectively, the report said.