Banks improve services for farmers and nomads

Banks in Sichuan province participating in a wide-scale poverty alleviation endeavor want to upend entrenched notions about lending to the poor.

Banking services that once required farmers and nomads to travel long distances to larger towns are being offered in villages.

And nine of the province's 12 impoverished cities and prefectures now have their own debt financing tools, which focus on bonds, and banks are encouraging businesses in poor regions to participate in the interbank bond market.