2015年CRI 中国加速民营银行申请审批（在线收听）

"I didn't need a guarantee, nor a mortgage, and on the second day I got the loan. I used to apply for loans before but that experience was like begging for money, but private banks treated me like a client."

That is Huang Xianxiang, chief manager of a hardware firm talking about his first experience dealing with Wenzhou Minshang Bank, the country's second private bank.

Thanks to the pilot program which was launched last year, Huang managed to get an unsecured loan of three million yuan or 480 thousand US dollars from the bank.

In 2014, China Banking Regulatory Commission approved the establishment of five private banks, including Tencent-backed Webank and Alibaba-backed MYbank.

These private banks will help finance small and micro-sized businesses which have long faced difficulty in funding.

From now on, the banking regulator is ready to accept a flood of new applications, opening up all channels for dealing with them.

So far, over 40 private bank applications are waiting for potential approval.

The bank watchdog will decide whether to approve private firms' applications within 4 months, though the legal time limit for such processes is 6 months.

In order to apply for a license, private companies must have been profitable over the past three years, while having clean credit and tax records.

But at the same time, China Banking Regulatory Commission Chairman Shang Fulin is warning private banks to deal with "residual risks" which are not covered by the deposit insurance system.

" China has already set up the deposit insurance system. Apart from this, private institutions should make some additional commitment for potential risks. This could make depositors feel much more secure, which in turn attracts more clients."

While welcoming the new direction from the banking regulator, private bank operators are also cautious.

Xu Zhiwu, shareholder of Wenzhou-based Minshang bank, explains.

"Firstly, we can't take it for granted that we can make big money by operating a bank. Secondly, instead of expecting to get big profits, we should really be prepared to continue investing and even investing more in the bank, especially in a middle or short term."

The latest move was seen as an important reform measure of China's banking sector, which is still dominated by major state-owned banking institutions.

The influx of private capital will also provide a new growth engine for China's slowing economy.

For CRI, I am Wang Mengzhen.