Across China: Farmers benefit from credit rating program in SW China

In a process that lasted less than 10 minutes, farmer Xu Tingxue was able to borrow 200,000 yuan (about 30,720 U.S. dollars) despite having no mortgage to secure the loan, which he got at a rural commercial bank in Anshun City, southwest China's Guizhou Province.

Xu, who used to live in poverty with a meager income of 865 yuan a year, now owns a glutinous rice winery that earns him 2 million yuan annually.

"There was no need for a mortgage as long as I got a credit rating evaluated by the bank," said Xu, "that's how I started my first loan of 3,000 yuan and opened the winery at my hometown in Batu village."

About 518 of the 528 households in Batu village, Anshun city have credit ratings and loan notes issued by the local bank, said Wu Gang, director of Anshun rural commercial bank Jiuzhou branch.

RATINGS BASED ON CREDIT REPUTATION

The glutinous rice wine brewed by Xu always sells out to customers from surrounding villages.

Before that, however, Xu's family of five had to subsist on two mu of farmland (about 0.13 hectare) with a yearly income of 4,000 yuan.

The Guizhou government introduced the credit rating program across the province in 2006, and Xu was among the first group of farmers to make loans out of nothing.

His credit ceiling has increased from 3,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan and finally, a 200,000 yuan loan last year.

He is not the only one to cash in. The credit rating program targets all rural households, especially poverty-stricken households that have an annual per capital income of less than 3,000 yuan.

"We have formed evaluation groups to review the financial and credit status of all farmers, before opening electronic files and issuing loan notes for them," said Long Yi from Anshun rural commercial bank.

Staff from the bank will visit every household and the credit ratings are given based on housing status, personal wealth, and whether members of the family are college students or migrant workers.

Farmers classified as having ordinary, good, excellent and super excellent credit ratings will have access to mortgage-free loans ranging from 10,000 to 500,000 yuan, while those evaluated as offgrade means they are not qualified for a loan.

During the first three months of each year, those households will be reevaluated based on the scale of production and credit record, and credit ratings will also be changed accordingly.

The government of Daba, another village in Anshun city, plans to boost its development through rural tourism. So far, 58 of its poverty-stricken households have borrowed a total of 1 million yuan to set up village hotels.

The Guizhou government has rated more than 1.4 million peasant households as credible and has invested nearly 53 billion yuan by the end of 2015.

The credit rating program is still in the process of covering all of its 8 million rural households, with the ultimate goal that mortgage-free loans can help people beat poverty. Endi