Guangdong Unveils Tiered Financing Plan for Sole Proprietorships

The Guangdong bureau of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, together with the Guangdong Development and Reform Commission, the Guangdong Administration for Market Regulation and the Shenzhen financial regulatory bureau, formulated the Implementation Plan for Building a Tiered Financial Services System for Sole Proprietorships in Guangdong Province. The plan aims for the number of sole proprietorship loan accounts in Guangdong to grow by no less than 10% annually on average during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, with loan balances exceeding RMB 1.2 trillion.

China registered 16.194 million new sole proprietorships in 2025. The plan calls for strengthening the data foundation by relying on financing credit service platforms to integrate government and market data. Government data covers the judiciary, social security, customs import and export, tax payments and business registration, while market data includes UnionPay, WeChat, Alipay, scenic-area foot traffic, and transactions on specialized markets or e-commerce platforms.

At the Tianhuan cold-chain seafood wholesale market in Shantou, Guangdong, seafood wholesaler Mr Lin mainly serves regular customers and collects payments largely through mobile channels such as WeChat and Alipay, with relatively little UnionPay acquiring. Under traditional credit models he could obtain only a credit line of a few tens of thousands of yuan. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China's Shantou branch introduced WeChat and Alipay transaction flows into its Merchant e-Loan product. After Mr Lin authorized access through mobile banking, the bank obtained his WeChat and Alipay transaction records and combined them with acquiring and settlement data. His credit line was then raised from a few tens of thousands of yuan to RMB 400,000.

As of the end of June 2026, ICBC's Guangdong branch had sole proprietorship loan balances of more than RMB 83 billion, up 6.8% from the start of the year. Loan balances for merchants whose WeChat or Alipay flows were incorporated rose by RMB 1.8 billion from the start of the year, covering more than 4,000 merchants.

The plan proposes classifying sole proprietorships into three categories, survival, growth and development, based on information such as years in operation, business conditions, tax payments and number of employees, and incorporating the classification data and the famous, distinctive, premium and new classification data into a financing credit subject database. For survival-type sole proprietorships, financial institutions may issue low-threshold, small-amount, draw-as-needed loans based on business filing and personal credit, without requiring accumulated operating cash flows. For growth-type merchants, medium- and long-term loans for purposes such as equipment renewal and store renovation are encouraged. For development-type merchants, support is given for brand building, technological upgrading, green transformation or digital transformation, as well as for conversion from sole proprietorship to enterprise and inclusion in the statistical system for above-scale businesses. For famous, distinctive, premium and new sole proprietorships, trademarks, patents, geographical indications and talent skills will be included in the credit evaluation system.

On insurance protection, the plan proposes raising basic protection levels such as business interruption insurance, work safety liability insurance and accident insurance for survival-type merchants; strengthening employer liability insurance, group accident insurance and comprehensive property insurance for growth-type merchants; providing comprehensive protection including product quality guarantees, intellectual property and trade credit for development-type merchants; and offering insurance protection covering brand reputation, trademark infringement, food safety, geographical indications and intangible cultural heritage protection for famous, distinctive, premium and new merchants.

On matching mechanisms, the plan requires establishing a rapid online matching mechanism by placing one-code-through QR codes at government service centers, market regulation offices, bank branches and the Yueshengshi platform. It also calls for establishing a mechanism to cultivate quality entities, advancing the Spark Loan inclusive financial services special action, collecting whitelists of quality sole proprietorships with funding needs and strong development potential and lists of those to be cultivated for conversion into enterprises, and guiding financial institutions to adopt support measures such as dedicated credit quotas, green approval channels and preferential interest rates.

On service models, the plan proposes promoting partner bank and partner insurance practices, encouraging banks and insurers to form specialized financial service teams and visit key commercial districts, farmers' markets and street night markets. Relying on the coordination mechanism for supporting small and micro enterprise financing, the financial advisor county empowerment initiative and grassroots governance grids, it seeks to extend financial services to the grassroots level.

On risk sharing, the plan requires government, banks, insurers and guarantors to work together. Banks and insurers should make good use of fiscal support policies, explore batch bank-guarantee cooperation under which guarantees are provided upon loan approval, and increase lending under entrepreneurship guarantee loans.

The plan also proposes improving financial relief mechanisms. For sole proprietorships facing short-term difficulties caused by seasonal fluctuations or market changes, measures such as relief financing will be adopted. For those involved in foreign trade affected by international trade frictions and exchange-rate fluctuations, targeted support will be provided, including subsidies for exchange-rate hedging tools and facilitation of cross-border RMB settlement. For merchants with minor credit breaches that have been rectified, credit records will be repaired promptly in accordance with laws and regulations.