Enterprises with poor environmental records risk having bank loan applications rejected under a nationwide credit system that factors environmental information when considering loan requests.

The People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, is working with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) to promote the initiative, according to Su Ning, the bank's deputy governor.

"This (move) will encourage enterprises to think more about the effect their operations have on the environment," Su said at a press conference yesterday in Beijing.

The initiative combines legal, economic and administrative means into a powerful weapon against pollution, he said, noting the move would compliment central government environmental efforts.

This coordination between the two heavyweights is further expected to reduce the risks borne by commercial banks.

As China strives to strike a balance between economic growth and environmental protection, industrial projects contravening national environmental policies will be halted, which although a worthy plan could create potential risks for the commercial banks funding the projects, said Dai Genyou, director of the central bank's Credit Management Bureau.

"If banks lend money to enterprises that are later ordered to close down for violating environmental rules, banks will suffer losses," Dai said.

Once the new credit system is installed, commercial banks will first check the environmental records of borrowing firms before allowing any money lending, he added.

Zhang Lijun, deputy director of the SEPA, said information collected on environment-related law enforcement since 2003 would be placed into the central bank's credit database.

The environmental records of enterprises are only a part of the non-financial data to be included in the central bank's credit system to help strengthen commercial banks' lending security.

The central bank is also cooperating with a network of departments, covering social security, customs, construction, commodity quality supervision, taxation and legal affairs to bring stability to the country's corporate finance system.

By the end of last year, the corporate credit database had grown to 11.17 million credit records, 44 percent of which represented enterprises that had borrowed money from commercial banks.

(China Daily January 10, 2007)