(Yicai Global) May 26 -- Foreign banks in Shanghai, a city locked down for almost two months, have been offering special credit support, cross-border collaboration, and other help to companies in difficulty because of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Shanghai branch of HSBC China was the first foreign lender to launch a special financial inclusion support program for micro and small businesses through a CNY1 billion (USD149.4 million) fund. The London-based bank also has been providing green channels for credit approval and financing discounts.

Mitsubishi UFJ China urgently requested additional bond trading system authorizations from its headquarters during the outbreak. In April, the Japanese banking giant took part in five corporate asset securitization projects, including those of Beijing Hyundai Auto Finance and Dongfeng Nissan Auto Finance. The projects, with total investment of CNY600 million (USD89.4 million), seek to meet the financing needs of the auto industry, which was severely hit by the Covid flare-up.

An auto parts client of BNP Paribas China had trouble providing original contracts and invoices due to the outbreak, so the French bank completed the trading background check for the firm via the tax administration’s website and then issued banker’s acceptance worth over CNY400 million.

On April 21, the Shanghai Banking and Insurance Regulatory Office came out with 15 measures to support the city’s efforts to control the outbreak and get back to work, including ramping up financial support for upstream and downstream companies in the industrial chain, simplifying the credit approval procedure, and lowering financing costs.

Since March, financial institutions in Shanghai have lent CNY33.5 billion (USD5 billion) to 731 businesses supplying Covid prevention materials and logistics companies, according to figures the local branch of the People’s Bank of China released on May 8.

In addition, CNY72.3 billion (USD10.7 billion) of loans have been extended to more than 10,000 firms in the catering, retail, travel, and transport sectors that were severely affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, the data showed.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione