Qilu Bank in Jinan, Shandong province, recently hosted a charity reading event to promote literacy and the power of knowledge as a part of its wider corporate social responsibility program.

The commercial bank invited literary experts, cultural scholars, book enthusiasts and employee representatives to take part in lectures and book-sharing sessions.

A spokesperson for the bank said the activities conveyed Qilu Bank's commitment to "providing financial services for the people" and the value of its Quanxin Public Welfare brand.

Qilu Bank, established in 1996, has adhered to a position of "serving urban and rural residents, serving small and medium-sized enterprises, and serving the local economy", achieving steady development.

The theme of this latest charity reading event was togetherness. To deepen the influence of the event, Zhao Yuebin, professor of the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Shandong Normal University and cultural scholar Liu Guosheng attended as keynote speakers.

Zhao used Zhang Wei's classic work Visiting Lao Wanyu's Home as an example to analyze the humanistic care and social reflection in literary works, guiding the audience to experience the nourishment of reading.

Liu, from a methodological perspective, shared the Reading Methods of Former Worthies and the reading wisdom of famous figures from ancient and modern times, discussing how efficient reading can enhance cognitive abilities and elevate one's life.

The power of reading lies not only in the accumulation of knowledge but also in practice. During the event, representatives from Qilu Bank shared how reading has influenced their career development and their life reflections based on their own experiences. From financial books to classic literary works, from management philosophy to essays on life, their stories vividly demonstrated the profound impact of reading on financial professionals.

The event featured a special "drumming and passing on books" segment, where participants conveyed the essence of literature by reading classic passages, experiencing the joy of reading in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere.

Qilu Bank commemorated the event by purchasing artwork from the Jinan Xingshen Special Children's Care Center to present to customers and employees, raising awareness of care for special groups in society.

The event built a bridge between culture and charity, and showcased the responsibility of financial institutions in promoting universal reading and building a literary society.

Qilu Bank said it is committed to serving the country through finance, empowering social progress with the power of finance and collaborating with customers, employees and various sectors of society to make finance warmer and cities more literate.

As a key player in serving the regional economy, Qilu Bank, headquartered in Jinan, Shandong province, is upgrading its services to support industrial park development. By establishing a comprehensive financial service system covering the entire park development chain, Qilu Bank has compiled a financial services manual aimed at driving park upgrades and industrial clustering through professional and precise solutions.

Qilu Bank has tailored its product offerings for park developers, resident enterprises, and entities throughout the industrial chain, facilitating resource allocation and enhancing park construction efficiency.

To serve park developers, they have introduced the Park Easy Loan to support the construction of standardized factories and supporting facilities. To assist enterprise growth, they offer factory loans, corporate property mortgages, rent loans, credit for equipment purchase and upgrades, research loans, innovation credit loans, and other financing services to meet the research and production expansion needs of enterprises. In terms of ecological collaboration, they provide smart park management systems, smart parking lots, and smart restaurants, forming a comprehensive intelligent service system.

To ensure precise and effective services, Qilu Bank has developed scenario-based manuals focused on the entire lifecycle of park enterprises, from settlement and incubation to growth and expansion. The bank has established five major standardized service scenarios.

For early-stage enterprises, they break through the financing dilemma of light assets by combining intellectual property pledges with government risk compensation. For expanding enterprises, they offer factory loans with a maximum term of 10 years to ease the pressure on fixed asset investment. Transitional enterprises can consider forward-win interest rate loans with a dual-rate model starting at 2 percent, where rates are low in the early period and high in the later period. For enterprises in the pre-listing period, they offer joint investment easy loans, proposing special credit support to high-quality investment entities, achieving two-way linkage with long-term and patient capital. For enterprises undergoing industrial chain integration, the bank has developed a "1+N" supply chain financing network based on the credit of core enterprises.

In Yantai, a manufacturing and marine economic hub, Qilu Bank is initiating regional development strategies. By establishing a three-level linkage mechanism comprising head office-branches-sub-branches, forming specialized service teams, and adopting a self-developed CRM system overlaid with a panoramic data view, the bank has achieved precise demand profiling. In the service of the Penglai Dengzhou Agricultural Trade Market project, the bank applied a credit enhancement model using property management guarantees and operating rights pledges. This solution not only addressed financing difficulties for light asset enterprises but also established a risk-sharing mechanism by binding with the park operator, forming a replicable service model.

In the next three years, Qilu Bank plans to support the construction of 50 specialized parks, expecting to drive industrial investment exceeding 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion).

"We not only provide financial support but also focus on creating long-term value for enterprises," said the head of the Corporate Banking Department of Qilu Bank. In the journey of serving the real economy, Qilu Bank is writing a new chapter of financial empowerment for industrial upgrading through professional and scenario-based innovative practices. It is continuously injecting momentum into the development of Shandong province's Top 10 industrial clusters and the transformation of old and new driving forces.

During the campaign to use financial tools to support the development of the real economy, Qilu Bank has become a representative example for supporting the development of small and micro-sized enterprises through practical action.

At the end of last year, a Jinan resident surnamed Qiao, a small business owner in Changqing district engaged in the wholesale peanut oil, urgently needed to increase cash flow due to year-end stocking. Upon learning about this, the Changqing district human resources and social security bureau immediately contacted Qilu Bank and, on the same day, together with the staff members of the bureau, visited Qiao's company to understand her needs.

"As Spring Festival approaches, the orders from various supermarkets are increasing, and the warehouse stocking has already been reserved. We need funds to prepare for year-end warehousing," said Qiao.

The Changqing district human resources and social security bureau learned that the company employed demobilized soldiers and disabled workers this year, and had paid social insurance for them, making a significant contribution to employment.

After understanding the situation, Qilu Bank immediately collected customer information, assisted customers in relevant identification work and coordinated with the higher-level approval department to help customers apply for the green approval channel. With the help of Changqing district human resources and social security bureau, Qilu Bank successfully financed Qiao's company with 1.7 million yuan ($233,532) within a day, with a loan interest rate of only 1.8 percent after government subsidies. Upon receiving the funds, Qiao went to Qilu Bank to show her gratitude.

Since the establishment of the coordination mechanism to support financing for small and micro-enterprises led by the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the National Development and Reform Commission in October 2024, Qilu Bank has been actively promoting the implementation of the mechanism and the "338" working mechanism.

By setting up specialized teams, resources are efficiently coordinated. Measures such as implementing policies such as interest-free loan renewals and due diligence exemptions, using monetary policy tools to provide stable financial support, introducing list-based management, special approval channels, and other eight measures to improve the efficiency of financial services are showing effects. The bank’s approved credit exceeds 15 billion yuan, the disbursed amount has exceeded 12 billion yuan, and the number of credit clients is 3,868.

Qilu Bank is keeping pace with the digital era and promoting the digital transformation of inclusive finance. It has created the Qilu e-Finance intelligent financial consulting solution, using big data and artificial intelligence-driven tools to accurately match customer needs with financial products. Customers can apply for personalized financing solutions with just one click through the WeChat mini-program. As of now, Qilu e-Finance has provided more than 550 million yuan in funding support to small and micro-sized clients.

Qilu Bank has shown strong determination and execution in supporting small and micro-enterprise financing by providing comprehensive and multi-level financial support for them. The bank has expressed its commitment to bridging the "last mile" of financial services for enterprises, helping small and micro-sized enterprises advance on the path of development and injecting strong momentum into the development of the real economy.

To support the city's affordable housing project, Qilu Bank recently approved a loan for an affordable housing project in Qinghe Xinju residential community in Jinan, Shandong province. It is the first city commercial bank in the province to provide a loan for an affordable housing development project.

Qilu Bank has adhered to the market position of "serving urban and rural residents, serving small and medium-sized enterprises, and serving the local economy". The bank focuses on the three major tasks of "improving people's livelihoods, promoting development, and reducing risks" to develop special real estate credit products such as affordable housing development loans, affordable rental housing development loans, affordable rental housing purchase loans, affordable rental housing operation loans and operational property loans. The loan subjects cover various entities involved in project construction, project operation, housing rental operations and various stages of housing construction and operation. In the future, Qilu Bank aims to design credit products for various housing scenarios such as rental loans, property loans and foreclosure loans to better serve the affordable housing project.

In an effort to connect with project entities, Qilu Bank has formed a marketing team to meticulously control business processes and risk management, helping to ensure a smooth approval process and implementation of effective risk management. This has led to the successful implementation of the development loan business for the Qinghe Xinju affordable housing project, demonstrating the bank's responsibility and commitment to achieving the goal of "adequate housing for all".

In the next phase, Qilu Bank will continue to implement the strategy of the Jinan city government and closely follow policy guidance. Leveraging its own advantages, it will support the development of the housing rental market and refine credit products, striving to increase credit allocation, contribute to improving people's livelihoods and promote economic development, social stability and the sustainable development of cities.

The growth of innovation-driven enterprises relies on the strong support of industrial and entrepreneurial ecosystems. Qilu Bank, while adhering to an opening-up mindset, has wisely integrated the technology financial ecosystem. In 2023, it led the establishment of the Qilu Investment and Loan Cooperation Alliance and the setup of a technology financial salon, empowering more than 500 tech companies.

According to Qilu Bank, it has established a technology financial branch, two distinctive technology financial branches and nine technology financial centers to create a technology financial layout that leads the Jinan and Qingdao regions in Shandong province with multiple measures. They have also set up separate access standards for classifying and managing high-tech enterprises, as well as a distinct approval mechanism that delegates approval authority, establishing differentiated standards for the enterprises.

Core products introduced include the Future Star and Rising Star, providing a full lifecycle product package. Additionally, it is focusing on building a comprehensive service platform that offers six integrated service solutions including bill managers, forex managers, tax managers and IPO management.

Moreover, Qilu Bank has implemented a dedicated risk tolerance mechanism and established a long-term loan mechanism to enhance the tolerance for non-performing tech loans. They are implementing due diligence exemptions and have formulated methods for exempting non-performing tech loans and due diligence negative lists. As of the end of June, Qilu Bank's general loans to tech enterprises reached 31.2 billion yuan ($4.3 billion), accounting for 13 percent of the bank's corporate loans. With an average growth rate of more than 30 percent over the past two years, it has served more than 7,000 tech enterprises.

The development of new quality productive forces presents new challenges for financial institutions in serving the real economy. In the future, Qilu Bank will leverage its own resources to focus on serving modern industrial systems and nurturing high-tech talents. They will pay attention to green development and enhance the precision of financial services for new quality productive forces. Simultaneously, they will strengthen data support to improve the impacts of financial services for new quality productive forces.