Source: Economic Reference Daily
Recently, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Developing New Quality Productive Forces" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). In the section titled "Solidly Promote Institutional and Mechanism Innovation," the document explicitly calls for expanding the supply of innovative financial products. Key measures include: refining policies that support long-term capital investing early, in small ventures, over extended periods, and in hard-tech sectors; nurturing patient capital; encouraging banks to develop loan products tailored to new quality productive forces; and supporting high-quality tech enterprises in raising funds through IPOs.
From financial institutions launching differentiated innovative products to empower the development of new quality productive forces, to the accelerated rollout of collaborative models such as investment-loan linkage and insurance-loan linkage, China's tech finance is entering a new phase of deep cultivation.
According to Pang Ming, a member of China's Chief Economist Forum, the Central Financial Work Conference previously designated tech finance as the top priority among the "Five Major Articles" of finance. The Opinion further calls for expanding patient capital, developing loan products tailored to new quality productive forces, and diversifying science and technology innovation bonds. Tech finance has thus evolved from addressing financing challenges in the early stages of enterprises to providing full-lifecycle services spanning basic research, pilot testing and conversion, and industrial scaling.
To support the development of new quality productive forces, particularly in the artificial intelligence sector, multiple financial institutions have launched innovative products since the second half of this year.
On the banking side, Token loans—the most closely watched innovative product—have recently seen a surge in implementation. In 8, Guangdong launched its first dedicated financial product for the token economy, "Token Loan," with Bank of China Guangzhou Branch, CITIC Bank, and Guangzhou Bank participating as pioneering demonstration banks. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) have also incorporated computing resources and token consumption into their credit evaluation frameworks, accelerating the rollout of products like "Token Loans" and "Computing Power Accounts."
Industry experts believe this product breaks the traditional credit logic reliant on physical collateral by converting dynamic data such as compute consumption and token usage into quantifiable credit indicators, marking a key innovation in tech finance tailored to AI industry characteristics.
On the insurance side, insurers are closely addressing emerging risk exposures in the tech sector, extending coverage boundaries beyond tangible assets to include digital rights, R&D processes, and technology commercialization. For instance, PICC Property recently launched "AI Kebao," an insurance product tailored for AI applications, filling a gap in China's market by covering economic losses from non-compliant AI performance—such as adjustments, repairs, replacements, and service fee refunds. Additionally, Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance's Beijing branch recently underwrote the first liability insurance policy for AI-generated content infringement, offering a customized protection plan for portrait and voice rights to an audio AI large-model enterprise.
Advancing in tandem with financial product innovation is the deepening collaboration across credit, insurance, and equity investment support mechanisms. Industry experts note that technology companies typically have long growth cycles and high early-stage risks, making it difficult for any single financial institution to meet their full-cycle financing needs—from seed stage to commercialization. Therefore, fostering cross-institutional coordination and building an integrated service ecosystem are critical.
Against this backdrop, collaborative models such as loan-investment linkage and insurance-loan linkage are becoming mainstream. According to the ICBC, the bank is strengthening two-way "investment + lending" coordination between its branches and subsidiaries to provide relay-style financial services for technology companies. "By launching pilot equity investment programs through ICBC Asset Investment Co., Ltd. (AIC), we meet the equity financing needs of startups and growing tech firms. Subsequently, we will provide diversified credit financing support based on enterprise needs, achieving relay-style funding through a 'equity + debt' approach," said an ICBC executive.
