The State Council issues the implementation plan, proposing 12 specific measures to gradually establish a unified comprehensive evaluation system for corporate credit status.

◎ Reporter Yu Xiangming

The State Council General Office recently issued the “Implementation Plan for Establishing a Comprehensive Corporate Credit Assessment System” (hereinafter referred to as the “Implementation Plan”). The Implementation Plan mentions accelerating the integration and application of public credit assessment with market-based credit assessment, and encouraging operating entities to provide preferential or convenient measures for enterprises with good credit standing in market activities such as bidding and procurement and commercial dealings.

Experts say that the policy’s encouragement to offer preferential treatment to enterprises with good credit in market activities such as bidding and procurement and commercial dealings is, in essence, aimed at making credit a “hard currency” for market transactions. Against the backdrop of building a nationwide unified big market, a company’s good credit record can directly lead to lower transaction costs, better financing conditions, more business opportunities, and stronger market competitiveness. This helps reduce institutional transaction costs across society and is a concrete reflection of efforts to optimize the business environment.

The Implementation Plan puts forward 12 specific measures in total, among which “establishing the institutional framework for a comprehensive corporate credit assessment system” ranks first. According to the Implementation Plan, to better play the basic role of public credit assessment results in the comprehensive corporate credit assessment of credit standing, public credit assessment and market-based credit assessment should be promoted to integrate with each other, gradually forming a unified comprehensive corporate credit assessment system.

He Ling, head of the Comprehensive Evaluation Division at the Business Environment Development and Promotion Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the social credit system is a fundamental institutional arrangement of a market economy. The Implementation Plan clarifies the relationship between public credit assessment and market-based credit assessment as complementary to each other, defines their respective meanings and boundaries, will promote two-way integration of information of both types, and helps achieve a government that is more capable and a market that is more effective.

The Implementation Plan has deployed specific work in areas such as improving the public credit assessment system, unifying the rules for public credit assessment, unifying the management of industry credit assessment, and unifying channels for public disclosure of public credit assessment results.

An expert assessment is that this will break down market barriers from the institutional level, address the pain points caused by inconsistent assessment rules among different localities and departments and results that are not mutually recognized, and thereby enable enterprises with good credit to enjoy more “credit dividends” in areas such as financing and bidding and procurement, significantly reducing institutional transaction costs.

With regard to unifying the rules for public credit assessment, the Implementation Plan proposes that public credit assessment indicator data should, in principle, come from public credit information; if appropriate, other information obtained or generated by relevant departments during their performance of duties that can reflect corporate credit standing may be included within the scope of indicator data. Assessment results from highest to lowest should, in principle, be divided into four tiers: “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D.” If score-based assessment results are adopted, the score ranges corresponding to the four tiers should be clearly specified. For two assessments of the same entity, the maximum interval should be no more than one year; for departments with the conditions, they may increase assessment frequency according to actual circumstances.

Experts say that in terms of assessment rules, the Implementation Plan unifies the sources of indicator data, the result tiers, and the assessment cycle, and specifies that the maximum assessment cycle should not exceed one year; the assessment rules should be made public to society. This will allow enterprises to clearly know where their credit is “good” and where it is “lacking.”

The Implementation Plan also proposes accelerating the integrated application of public credit assessment and market-based credit assessment, and encouraging operating entities to provide preferential or convenient measures for enterprises with good credit standing in market activities such as bidding and procurement and commercial dealings. At the same time, it will better play the supporting role of credit assessment in financing for small and micro enterprises, encouraging financial institutions to rely on the network of the national integrated financing credit service platform, use the results of public credit assessment reasonably, and improve credit granting, risk assessment, and interest-expense pricing model development. It encourages lowering the requirements for collateral and guarantees for enterprises with relatively high credit assessment tiers, gradually expanding the coverage of credit loans and increasing the proportion of credit loans.

Yang Chang, chief analyst on the policy team at CICC-Taiwan Securities Research Institute, said in an interview with a Shanghai Securities News reporter that establishing a comprehensive corporate credit assessment system will help, from a macro perspective, grasp the overall credit level of different regions and different categories of enterprises, and can implement corresponding policy supply in response to changes in macro credit conditions. Through precise depiction of enterprises’ credit situations, it can help reduce information asymmetry among enterprises, between enterprises and governments, and between enterprises and residents, and reduce transaction costs.