China's central bank and banking regulatory commission have ordered the country's financial institutions to provide preferential loan policies to victims in the mudslide-hit regions of Gansu and Sichuan provinces.

The minimum down payment for a home in the disaster-affected urban regions could be reduced to 10 percent while the interest rate for home loans could be cut to possibly 60 percent of the benchmark rate, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, and China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a joint statement issued over the weekend.

Banks were also asked to help ease loan pressures for rural residents in the disaster-affected regions.

A massive mudslide, which took place on August 8 in Zhouqu County of northwest China's Gansu Province, has killed 1,248 people as of 4:00 PM Sunday, with 496 still missing. Flooding and mudslides in southwest China's Sichuan Province has left at least 13 dead and 59 missing.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2010)