China announces measures to provide financial service

The Chinese government has announced a string of emergency measures to provide convenient financial services for people in quake-hit Qinghai Province and to support reconstruction.

The measures were jointly introduced by the People's Bank of China, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission. They lower the deposit reserve ratio and rediscount rate for the financial institutions.

The Bank of China has lowered the deposit reserve ratio for financial institutions in the quake area by 1 percentage point to help increase lending.

It has also reduced its rediscount rate for local Rural Credit Cooperatives by 1 percentage point to ease their financial burden.

The rediscount rate is the interest rate charged to banks and deposit institutions when they borrow money from the central bank.

The central bank directed banks to allow people in the quake zone to withdraw cash when their deposit books are destroyed.

The vice governor of People's Bank of China Su Ning said, "Some citizens' deposit books may have been destroyed by the earthquake, but they need money. In this case, the banks can give cash to them if the commercial banks find cash in their accounts and the people can prove their ID with documents."

The central bank says individuals and companies will be exempted from bad credit records if they can repay their loans before the deadline.