Financial Support for Consumption Heats Up at Two Sessions, with Discounted Loan Policies Boosting Demand

Financial support for consumption has emerged as one of the hot topics during this year’s national Two Sessions, as optimized personal consumer loan interest subsidy policies and coordinated efforts from financial institutions work to unlock consumption potential and fuel domestic demand.

On March 6, the Minister of Finance introduced at an economic-themed press conference held during the 4th Session of the 14th National People’s Congress that the personal consumer loan interest subsidy policy has been optimized and upgraded to align with public consumption habits. Online consumer credit products such as Huabei and WeChat Pay Microloan, as well as credit card bill installment services and auto finance, are now eligible for interest subsidies.

In response to relevant policy guidelines, various financial institutions and platforms have quickly taken action to roll out supporting services and preferential measures, ensuring policy dividends reach consumers directly and forming a sound pattern of collaborative efforts. The policy, which has been extended to the end of 2026, also expands coverage to include more financial institutions and cancels previous restrictions on consumption areas and subsidy limits.

It was learned on March 10 that starting from March, the “national interest subsidy” special campaign for Huabei Installment has expanded from online to more than 1,200 offline stores, initially cooperating with over 180 brand merchants in education, health and other fields. Adopting a model of “financial interest subsidy + financial support + merchant concessions”, the campaign helps extend financial benefits to more consumers, covering 19 key cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing, with a focus on people’s livelihood service areas such as health and education.

Beyond this, other financial institutions have also launched distinctive initiatives based on their own advantages. One consumer finance company serves the national strategy of expanding domestic demand through a “subsidy concession + rights protection” model, while an installment platform focuses on people’s livelihood needs, adopting a “interest subsidy concession + scenario empowerment” model to release consumption potential in an orderly manner, offering interest-free installments of up to 12 periods during key consumption nodes.

Meanwhile, another institution responds to the national subsidy campaign by providing benefits such as “a maximum 1.5% interest reduction coupon for new customers, 30-day interest-free coupons” and “cash rebates for every loan”. Haier Consumer Finance focuses on key household upgrade categories such as refrigerators and smart washing machines, implementing a combined “national subsidy + industrial interest subsidy” plan and offering 12-period interest-free installment services in more than 2,000 offline Haier stores.

An researcher from Postal Savings Bank of China analyzed that the implementation of the personal consumer loan interest subsidy policy presents three prominent characteristics. First, the service model is highly automated, with most institutions achieving “one-time authorization and automatic identification and deduction” to allow consumers to enjoy benefits without application.

Second, scenario innovation is continuously deepened, as institutions take the initiative to link with diverse formats such as supermarkets, cultural tourism and home furnishing to build a closed-loop “credit + interest subsidy + consumption” service. Third, the institutional coverage is expanding, with the policy including city commercial banks, rural commercial banks, foreign-funded banks and consumer finance companies with a regulatory rating of 3A and above into the list of participating institutions, further broadening the scope and enabling policy dividends to benefit more groups.

A senior researcher from a commercial bank’s research institute noted that the coordinated empowerment of financial interest subsidies and the financial sector has three features: greater preferential intensity, combining financial interest subsidies with multiple concessions from financial institutions and merchants to achieve win-win results for all parties; wider coverage, including online and offline consumption as well as small-sum and high-frequency consumption; and more convenient operation, aligning with users’ daily payment habits to allow them to easily enjoy interest subsidy benefits.

Regarding the future optimization direction of institutional actions, she suggested that financial institutions should continuously strengthen their ability to monitor capital flows to avoid issues such as subsidy misuse, establish broader cooperation with scenarios, platforms and merchants based on customer consumption needs and habits, and enhance publicity and guidance, especially for groups with poor information access or difficulties in operating interest subsidy procedures, such as the elderly.

An executive from a consumer finance company stated that March this year is a period of overlap between spring promotions and the national interest subsidy policy, and residents’ service consumption in areas such as health and education is becoming a new bright spot in boosting consumption. He added that the company will continue to deepen cooperation with offline merchants to extend interest-free installments to more cities and consumption scenarios.