“No Forms, No Guarantor”: Chongqing Helps Small Shops Borrow Without Collateral

Chongqing - For small business owners without collateral, steady sales and a good reputation could help secure a loan. Chongqing, home to over 2 million individually owned businesses, uses 86 indicators to build credit profiles, helping lenders assess cash flow and credit history, with some loans approved in minutes.

Since the start of 2026, the city has extended 13.3 billion yuan (about 1.99 billion U.S. dollars) in central bank relending for private enterprises, which induced banks to issue 66.7 billion yuan in loans to small and micro private businesses.

"No forms to file, no guarantor to find. I stopped worrying." Gong Minghua, who runs a tobacco and liquor store in Shapingba District, applied through Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank's mobile app. The system set a limit based on his sales records and credit history in minutes, and the money arrived that day.

Chongqing’s “financial brain” secures merchant data to ease financing

When the records sit in separate systems, a bank struggles to judge how a corner shop is really doing. The market regulator holds registration records, the tax office holds filings, the banks hold card-settlement flows, the social insurance bureau holds contribution records.

Xue Hongyan, vice president of Xingtu Financial Research Institute, put it plainly: "Traditional assessment leans too hard on standard financial statements and sufficient collateral, and those are exactly what individual businesses lack. Their operations are small, their books are simple, so a lender cannot price their credit risk with confidence."

Chongqing has over 2 million individual businesses supporting nearly 5 million jobs. "The overwhelming majority run on light assets and need pure-credit lending that turns around fast," said an official at the Chongqing Administration for Market Regulation.

And now, the data is more consolidated. Chongqing Enterprises Online, the city's portal for business registration and services, tracks 86 indicators for a small shop: registration records prove a business exists, activity records show how it trades, compliance records gauge risk, and growth records predict where it is heading. 

The city updates the data regularly through its integrated digital resource system. According to the People's Bank of China Chongqing Municipal Branch, this "financial brain" has gathered 79.5 billion data records.

With one standard in place, Xue argues, banks can weigh tax compliance, social insurance and digital sales together, turning records into measurable credit. And lenders receive only the processed score, while the data remain fully encrypted and usage is traceable.

Banks adapt easier lending to how each small and private business runs

After the credit profiles are established, money needs to flow to the business owners. Multiple banks in Chongqing now offer fast-tracked services.

Bank of Chongqing's Merchant Growth Loan pulls registration, litigation records, credit reports, and UnionPay settlement flows through a risk engine, approving limits up to 2 million yuan, with same-day disbursement and repayment at will.

Across its individual business credit program, Bank of Chongqing had served 15,900 borrowers by the end of August, who signed for 2.16 billion yuan.

A convenience store in Wushan County borrowed through the product. Ahead of Spring Festival, the owner, Lao Wang, stocks holiday goods, and in past years, short cash cost him the selling window. This year the bank approved 200,000 yuan of unsecured credit the same day.

Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank fitted credit into neighborhood commerce. Li Lei, who runs a convenience store, said the bank's loan product for neighborhood shops can be drawn and repaid at will, with interest "charged for the days you use it." "Banks used to look at the house and the car as collateral. Now they lend on my sales record and my reputation."

In specialized markets, the bank adds extra layers of assessment to trade experience. Across the three main timber markets in the central urban districts, Chongqing Three Gorges Bank extended credit to 330 merchants, most trading for more than five years, converting sales records, lease contracts and purchase and sales ledgers, verified on site, into credit limits. Cumulative credit across the three markets has passed 10 million yuan.

Zhu Hong, who has processed and sold building materials for more than a decade, runs about 1 million yuan a month in sales. Early this year, she drew 500,000 yuan unsecured to buy and process logs. "The account manager came into the market and asked detailed questions: where the logs come from, how long customers take to pay. A week later, the money was there."

Once the money is in hand, the business demands shift to lower interest rates, bigger limits, and simpler renewals. An upgraded individual business loan program aims to answer these needs and especially help three priority groups: those who want to raise quality and expand; food service, retail, and neighborhood service merchants, to steady their business and their payroll; and owners who want to digitize and sell online.