Building a suitable financial ecosystem for hard technology companies

When “light-asset, unsecured” high-tech companies encounter the traditional bank’s credit model of “reading reports and analyzing cash flow,” the issues of “not understanding, not being precise, and not daring to lend” become obstacles that must be overcome to unlock new productive forces in financial services.

How can we smooth the “last mile” of capital flow to real-world innovation? Ma Jun, a National People’s Congress deputy and president of the People’s Bank of China Hubei Branch, suggests using systemic thinking to reshape financial logic, allowing finance to truly understand the value of innovation. Recently, in an exclusive interview with China Securities Journal, he stated that Hubei is building a “Five-Chain Integration” fintech ecosystem, shifting financial institutions from passively waiting for clients to proactively discovering and nurturing “good seedlings,” starting with solving the “not understanding” obstacle, and truly facilitating innovation.

Breaking the “Data Chain”: From Incomprehension to Accurate Insight

“Traditional financial risk assessment models are difficult to adapt to the inherent laws of tech innovation—‘light assets, high growth, long cycles.’” Ma Jun pointed out this key issue in the interview. He believes the breakthrough is not forcing banks to lend but reshaping financial evaluation and service logic, effectively connecting the “data chain” to address information asymmetry at its source.

In Hubei, a platform called “Smart Brain” is operating effectively. It functions like a vast network, aggregating technological public information from 13 departments to form a dynamic database covering 280,000 tech-based enterprises across the province. It transforms soft information—such as innovation input, talent teams, and intellectual property—that was previously hard for financial institutions to quantify into “hard credit” that banks are willing to see and use.

“Hubei’s exploration and practice in this area are leading the way,” Ma Jun said. “You can clearly see a company’s technological strength, whether its R&D team is stable, and if it has core technologies. Banks have confidence, so they dare to lend.”

With data in place, product innovation naturally follows. Relying on this data foundation, Hubei has moved beyond simple “pepper-spraying” subsidies, instead tailoring innovation support by issuing product operation guidelines and special financial credit enhancement policies, building the “Smart Brain” digital platform, and promoting diversified application scenarios of an innovation points system, resulting in a suite of “points”-based products covering the entire lifecycle of enterprises.

Ma Jun said that Hubei has implemented the “Innovation Points Loan,” embedding enterprise points directly into bank credit models, with total loans exceeding 93.3 billion yuan; simultaneously, they have upgraded the “Knowledge Value Credit Loan,” exploring a dual-driven approach of “data-based credit enhancement + fiscal credit enhancement.” Through risk compensation, interest subsidies, and re-lending incentives, banks are encouraged to lend more confidently, with total loans reaching 110.9 billion yuan; leveraging Hubei’s strengths in science, education, and talent, they have expanded into “Science and Technology Talent Loans,” extending evaluation to core talent teams, with total loans of 34.7 billion yuan.

“After three years of effort, Hubei has formed a ‘points’-based product system that deeply integrates the innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain,” he said.

Building a “Willing to Lend” Mechanism: From Policy Incentives to Deep Evaluation System Iteration

Having solved the problem of “being able to see clearly,” the next challenge is how to shift financial institutions from “not daring to lend” to “willing and daring to lend,” which tests the sophistication of policy design.

Hubei’s approach combines “digital intelligence empowerment + policy incentives.” On one hand, they refine approval models and evaluation algorithms to better profile enterprises; on the other, they use real financial risk-sharing mechanisms to alleviate banks’ concerns. In the “Knowledge Value Credit Loan,” fiscal credit enhancement and risk mitigation serve as safety nets, transforming banks from passive recipients to active service providers.

“The ‘Technology First Loan’ campaign” further deepens this service.

“We leverage the guiding role of re-lending for technological innovation and launched the ‘Technology First Loan Campaign’ to support loans for tech-based small and medium-sized enterprises,” Ma Jun said. By the end of December 2025, banks in Hubei had signed loan agreements with 1,399 tech SMEs, with a loan balance of 10.4 billion yuan and an average interest rate of 2.87%.

“This year, we aim to iterate the credit evaluation system across three dimensions,” Ma Jun continued. His focus remains on “precision.” First, making profiles more dynamic by integrating data from key industrial links like ‘technological breakthroughs, pilot testing, and industrialization of results’ into the points model to reflect enterprise innovation vitality in real time. Second, diversifying scenarios by expanding points results from main credit scenarios to encompass ‘investment, lending, bonds, insurance, and guarantees,’ encouraging institutions to develop products like ‘Points Investment’ and ‘Points Insurance.’ Third, improving collaboration efficiency through the provincial science and technology financial service alliance, establishing mutual recognition and coordination mechanisms for a “white list” of institutions, creating an integrated ecosystem of “discover enterprises—evaluate enterprises—financial services,” so that “good seedlings” are seen by the entire financial system at the first moment," Ma Jun explained.

According to China Securities Journal, in January this year, Hubei’s “Project Financing Express” in the water conservancy sector was launched first, with 66 signed projects both on-site and off-site, and a total cooperation agreement amount of 179.3 billion yuan. Ma Jun revealed that this model will be replicated and promoted in future industries, working with the provincial Development and Reform Commission, Economic and Information Technology Department, Science and Technology Department, and others to map out detailed “technology-industry-enterprise” diagrams, and regularly publish forward-looking project financing demand lists to match financial resources precisely with cutting-edge technological needs.

Deploying “Patience Capital”: Injecting Long-term Momentum into Future Industries

If serving current tech companies is “cultivation,” then planning for the “14th Five-Year Plan” future industries requires the foresight and patience of “sowing.”

Facing the “three highs and one long” characteristics of future industries—“high capital density, high risk threshold, high technical barriers, and long cultivation cycles”—Ma Jun’s thinking goes even deeper.

“He advocates establishing mechanisms for increased investment and risk sharing in future industries, building a ‘supportive’ system centered on ‘extremely patient capital,’ with deep integration of various financial tools,” he said. “Financial institutions shouldn’t wait until companies grow big to add value; they should proactively intervene from the technical route verification stage, jointly designing full-cycle financial solutions covering ‘basic research—proof of concept—enterprise incubation’ with national strategic science and technology forces responsible for future industry breakthroughs.”

Meanwhile, innovations in direct financing tools are also injecting “fresh water” into many industries. Since the launch of the “Science and Technology Board” in the bond market in May 2025, Hubei’s science and technology innovation bonds have performed well. By the end of February 2026, 20 market entities in the province had issued a total of 28.922 billion yuan in science and technology innovation bonds in the interbank bond market, ranking among the top in central China, with coverage across enterprises, financial institutions, and equity investment entities.

Ma Jun is very familiar with these figures. He mentioned that Wuhan Innovation Investment Group issued 450 million yuan in science and technology innovation bonds, raising funds to invest in three equity funds focused on integrated circuits, optoelectronic information, and life health, leveraging a “small investment for big impact” effect; Wuhan Rural Commercial Bank successfully issued Hubei’s first science and technology innovation financial bond, with a 600 million yuan issuance, 5-year term, 1.85% coupon rate, and all funds used for issuing science and technology loans to support high-tech enterprises and registered tech SMEs, providing real financial “nutrients” with low costs and long cycles.

“Currently, the average coupon rate of the province’s science and technology innovation bonds is around 2%, generally lower than the rates of comparable bonds and loans, with mainly medium- and long-term maturities. This not only reduces the financing costs for tech enterprises but also effectively alleviates the mismatch between R&D investment timelines,” Ma Jun said. “This ‘investment-loan linkage’ and direct financing via bond markets are helping build a risk-sharing and profit-sharing mechanism suited to the high-risk nature of future industries, injecting continuous strong momentum into Hubei’s development of new productive forces.”

From connecting the “incomprehensible” information islands, to building the “Five-Chain Integration” financial ecosystem, and to deploying “extremely patient” future capital, Hubei’s fintech “solution” always revolves around a clear main line: enabling finance to truly understand the value of innovation.