The state-owned banking giant is making a fresh move in inclusive finance.
Historically, major state-owned banks have dominated the small and micro-enterprise market through sheer scale. However, this approach has encountered limitations. Traditional inclusive finance products are often minor adaptations of corporate credit offerings, with the service for individual merchants essentially remaining a "single loan product." While loan amounts are smaller and approval is faster, there is still a lack of integrated scenarios, resulting in limited customer stickiness.
In July 2026, Industrial And Commercial Bank Of China Limited (ICBC) launched the "Liquidity Plan" targeting small and micro-merchants. This initiative is specifically designed to build a dedicated, comprehensive financial service system for individual industrial and commercial households and offline small and micro-businesses. Compared to the bank's previous standardized small and micro-credit products, the "Liquidity Plan" has a more focused target clientele and a more ecosystem-oriented service model. Behind the aggregated payment QR code lies a closed-loop merchant service system integrating four key areas: payment collection, lending, wealth management, and exclusive benefits.
This clearly represents another significant exploration by ICBC in the small and micro-finance sector. The signal it sends is unmistakable: offline small and micro-merchants are becoming a customer group that major banks are eagerly eyeing, aiming to lock in and intensively develop. A silent war is likely on the horizon.
It is noteworthy that these traditional state-owned banking behemoths, established for decades, are now learning and applying internet-based thinking. When combined with their vast and most comprehensively covered physical branch networks, this could represent a blue ocean market. However, this ocean already has established, mature players.
Alipay and WeChat Pay have demonstrated the value of the payment gateway with a single QR code. Whoever controls payments controls merchants' operational data; and with operational data, cross-selling of credit, wealth management, and insurance products naturally follows. Leveraging this, MYbank serves over 77.22 million small and micro-merchants with Assets Under Management (AUM) exceeding 1.2 trillion yuan, while WeBank's annual profit surpasses 11 billion yuan.
If viewed solely from the perspective of the scale of inclusive small and micro-enterprise loans, state-owned banks are already the dominant force on the supply side. By the end of 2025, ICBC's outstanding inclusive small and micro-enterprise loans stood at 3.6 trillion yuan; CCB's "Huidongni" platform had signed commitments exceeding 3 trillion yuan; and ABC's inclusive loan balance reached 4.35 trillion yuan. This clearly shows that major banks engaging with small and micro-businesses is not new. However, these products essentially operate within the framework of corporate credit, making reductions—adjusting amounts down and shortening processes—while the product form remains fundamentally a loan.
The difference with the "Liquidity Plan" lies in its changed starting point. It begins with payment collection, using the payment gateway as the first point of contact, thereby keeping merchant transaction flows within the ICBC system. Data is automatically converted into credit parameters, with credit lines based on acquiring transaction volumes, offering amounts of up to 3 million yuan. In the practices of some ICBC branches, the comprehensive service model initiated via payment collection has already shown initial results. In the first quarter of 2026, the Gansu Wuwei branch acquired 357 new merchants with a payment volume of 604 million yuan; the Hunan Changde Chengdong sub-branch granted over 8 million yuan in "Business Quick Loan" credit to more than 120 small and micro-merchants in its jurisdiction.
Starting with payment collection is just the first step for ICBC in its small and micro-market strategy. According to its officially disclosed service system, the wealth enhancement side already offers access to exclusive large-denomination certificates of deposit, "Shangying" wealth management products, and insurance protection. This allows merchants, starting from a single payment QR code, to obtain a one-stop experience covering account management, credit financing, and wealth appreciation.
Looking at the overall industry landscape, internet-based institutions, after a decade of deep cultivation in specific scenarios, have successfully established a mature model for small and micro-business services: "payment scenario + data empowerment + comprehensive finance." Meanwhile, state-owned banks possess inherent advantages in funding costs, offline channels, and risk control systems. The current entry of institutions like ICBC into the offline merchant scene addresses the traditional weakness of lacking integrated scenarios in small and micro-finance.
The logic of industry competition is thus shifting from the previous "contest of credit scale" to a full-dimensional competition encompassing scenarios, data, and comprehensive services. The ability to provide end-to-end financial services for the entire merchant business chain will determine the core competitiveness of state-owned banks in the next phase of inclusive finance for small and micro-enterprises.