Beijing

CHINA'S central bank pledged more financial support for small and micro businesses while saying it plans to stick to a prudent monetary policy stance this year.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) will improve the incentive mechanism for lending to such companies, it said in a statement following a two-day work conference in Beijing.

Authorities will make it easier for them to gain access to financing through targeted reserve cuts, re-lending and re-discounting, among other policy tools, it said.

The central bank also said it would continue efforts to defuse major risks with a focus on building a long-term regulatory mechanism for Internet finance and real estate financing.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China's forex regulator, said separately that it would diversify policy tools to counter the impact from external shocks on the country's trade and investment, international balance of payment and cross-border capital flows.

China's banking and insurance regulator on Friday vowed to take a series of measures to shore up the nation's troubled smaller banks and insurers while continuing a clampdown on shadow financing and property speculation.

The regulator will introduce measures to eliminate bad loans and promote mergers, capital injections and the restructuring of high-risk institutions, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said in a statement on Friday. Other steps include setting up a resolution fund and bridge banks while introducing new investors and allowing market-oriented exits.

Many of China's 3,000 small banks are coping with a mountain of bad loans, prompting the government to crack down on risky funding practices. Small, troubled banks pose a risk to the Chinese economy, which is already growing at its weakest pace since the early 1990s.

The watchdog will gradually lower the risks of shadow financing by reducing non-compliant investments in non-standard assets, while insurance institutions will clean up multi-layered investment and leveraged transactions between related parties, it added.

CBIRC will also increase risk management in areas such as real estate. It will make sure housing deals are not for speculation and prevent capital from flowing illegally into property markets. Moreover, it will continue to resolve the hidden debt risk of local government bonds.

The regulator is encouraging the conversion of household savings into long-term capital investment and the greater development of corporate annuity and endowment insurance businesses. The CBIRC wants wealth management, insurance and trust products to be directly involved in financing and cultivate long-term value investment opportunities. BLOOMBERG