China's biggest lender's agricultural loans near 4 trln yuan by August

BEIJING, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's biggest lender, has stepped up financial support in the agricultural sector to boost its high-quality development.

By the end of August, the balance of ICBC's agriculture-related loans had reached approximately 4 trillion yuan (about 557.12 billion U.S. dollars), the lender said.

The bank has developed a slew of financing products to provide accurate and suitable credit support for customers in key areas such as food supply and seed industry.

By the end of August, the balance of ICBC's loans in these key areas had topped 140 billion yuan.

The lender has also provided rural customers with special services such as bank card fee reduction as well as special deposit and financial products.

By the end of August, ICBC had issued more than 45 million rural revitalization bank cards, providing strong support for activating the rural market and promoting rural consumption.?