SPD Bank Hangzhou Branch continues to make efforts in five major sectors, helping the economic powerhouse take on a leading role.

On March 28, 1994, the Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch took root on the shores of West Lake, becoming the first joint-stock commercial bank institution to enter Zhejiang, and the first branch PDB established outside Shanghai. At the time, there was only one branch outlet, and the employees numbered only in the dozens. Today, 32 years later, this branch has opened 92 business outlets across all of Zhejiang Province. Its service network has expanded from Hangzhou to throughout the province, making it one of the joint-stock banks with the deepest roots in Zhejiang.

Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch. All images in this article are provided by Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch

Zhejiang is a province with a large private economy, a province that is highly open, and a province known for tech innovation. In 2025, the province’s regional GDP exceeded 9.4 trillion yuan, continuing to shoulder the responsibility of “a major economic province bearing a major share of the task.”

In the process of economic transformation and leapfrogging, Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch has always kept step with Zhejiang’s high-quality development, resonating in sync and helping “a major economic province bear a major share of the task.” In recent years, the branch has closely followed the “five major articles” proposed by the Central Financial Work Conference, and led by the head office’s “digital and intelligent” strategy, it has continued to focus on five key tracks—tech finance, supply chain finance, inclusive finance, cross-border finance, and treasury/financial asset services—so that “fresh financial capital” can nourish the land of the Qiantang River Delta.

Tech Finance: From “Looking at Bricks” to “Looking at Technology”

In the Hangzhou Future Science and Technology City, Jiachen Xihai (Hangzhou) Biotechnology is an innovative drug company founded in 2019. It has multiple drug pipeline candidates under development that are at leading levels globally, but new drug R&D cycles are long and require heavy investment, and the pressure of funding shadows it at all times.

“A new drug R&D cycle often starts on a scale of ten years. In the past, traditional bank credit focused on historical statements and collateral. For our kind of asset-light company, it’s hard to get support,” a relevant person in charge at Jiachen Xihai Xihai said candidly.

During its visit, the tech finance team of Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch understood the company’s needs. They did not simply apply traditional risk-control models. Instead, they conducted in-depth analysis of the company’s core technology, R&D pipeline, and team background, and quickly approved a consolidated credit line of 60 million yuan, including 20 million yuan under “Puyuan Loan.”

“Puyuan Loan” is a special loan product launched by Pudong Development Bank to support innovation-driven R&D for technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises. It aims to address financing pain points faced by tech companies during the R&D stage, such as “light assets, high investment, long cycles, and hard-to-secure collateral.”

This is a snapshot of the concept shift in tech finance at Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch. On the journey to develop new productive forces in Zhejiang, the branch has actively responded to the national innovation-driven development strategy and established tech finance as a top strategic track for the whole bank. As they put it internally, it means “moving from looking at history and bricks to looking at the future and technology.” According to the information, in nearly one year since the launch of “Puyuan Loan,” the branch has granted credit to over one hundred companies, covering technology enterprises ranging from mature profitable businesses to early-stage companies that are not yet profitable—even those with no revenue.

To build a professional system that truly understands technology and provides strong service, in 2024 Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch set up a first-level department for tech finance. It has now established 28 tech (specialty) sub-branches. They have all formed dedicated approval teams and implemented a “parallel due diligence” mechanism, with underwriting and approval personnel joining the technical assessment process in advance. In July 2025, the “Three-Year Action Plan for the Hangzhou Branch to Create a Tech Finance Featured Branch” was released and implemented. With the “three specialties” strategy of “dedicated assessments, dedicated resources, and professional teams,” it has built a service system covering the full life cycle of tech and innovation enterprises.

On the product side, the “Puke” series of credit products has been iterated into the “5+7+X” full life-cycle financial product system version 2.0: “Puchuang Loan” accompanies seed-stage enterprises from germination; “Puxin Loan” injects funding into start-up stages; “Putou Loan” links equity financing; “Puyuan Loan” supports R&D breakthroughs; and “Puke M&A Loan” helps expansion in the mature stage.

Adhering to the principle of “serving tech innovation and creating value,” Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch has actively connected with sources of tech innovation enterprise resources in the Yangtze River Delta region. It has carried out brand salon activities such as “Tech Business Talk” and “Integrating Technology · Partner Bank,” and created an integrated service model of “commercial banking + investment banking + ecosystem,” with an “equity, debt, loans, guarantees, leasing, incubation, matchmaking, and linkages” one-stop service approach. It aims to achieve the goal of tech lending that “helps early, helps small, and supports hard tech,” providing tech enterprises with comprehensive, one-stop financial services, and striving to become a preferred partner bank for tech enterprises.

Digital and intelligent platforms have given wings to tech finance. With the head office’s “Sperm Whale” digital and intelligent customer acquisition platform, the “Enterprise Radar” technology-based five-forces model, and fund-rto-investment docking tools, the branch has supported more than 1,500 tech enterprises and successfully landed credit approvals for over 800 accounts.

The branch is also trying to transition toward becoming a co-builder of the financial ecosystem. Earlier this year, the branch partnered with Guanxiao Community to launch the co-branded “Puyou Yao” card and became a strategic cooperation partner for the AI hackathon. In the future, Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch will, based on its original differentiated credit capabilities, integrate resources and upgrade services—transforming from a “provider of funds” into an “ecosystem co-builder.”

By the end of 2025, Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch’s tech finance loan balance exceeded 100 billion yuan, serving more than 14,000 tech enterprises, with over 2,000 tech credit borrowers. Among joint-stock banks, its tech finance regulatory assessment ranking is second.

Supply Chain Finance: Let Capital Follow the Industrial Chain

Zhejiang is a major manufacturing province, with long industrial chains and many upstream and downstream enterprises. Behind one core enterprise are often hundreds or even thousands of small and micro suppliers. These enterprises are small in scale and have limited collateral, and the issues of “difficulty in financing” and “high financing costs” have long persisted.

Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch’s solution is: let capital run along the industrial chain.

In 2025, the branch implemented its first in-house “Pu Tie Tong” business for a large domestic communications operator. This product uses technologies such as big data and blockchain, and based on a mechanism for sharing core enterprise credit limits, it provides end-to-end online electronic commercial acceptance bill discounting and financing to multi-level suppliers across the country. Upstream suppliers no longer have to worry about financing额度 (credit limits); they can quickly obtain funds by using their commercial acceptance bills.

“A long time ago, to wait for a loan repayment, we often had to occupy a large amount of working capital. With ‘Pu Tie Tong,’ from application to disbursement only takes a few minutes, and the funds arrive at the seconds level. We no longer need to prepare contracts and invoices one by one,” said a finance负责人 (person in charge) at a technology company that provides supporting services to a communications operator in Hangzhou.

According to estimates, this model shortens the financing cycle by more than 90% compared with traditional models, and reduces the overall financing cost by more than 20%.

Financial services that follow the industrial chain are precise and comprehensive. Based on Pudong Development Bank’s “Pu Lian Tong” digital/intelligent supply chain “1+1+X” service system, the Hangzhou Branch has clarified that it will serve strategic customers of the head office and branch, customers of Zhejiang’s “415X” advanced manufacturing industry clusters defined by the provincial government, and key customers in subdivided industries with regional characteristics and development potential. It provides external data sources such as the State Grid and supply chain platforms, and builds customer profiles, industrial structures, and settlement characteristics—bringing financial services to upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.

By the end of 2025, the branch had cumulatively served more than 2,000 supply-chain upstream and downstream enterprises and issued more than 60 billion yuan in online supply chain financing. Of these, 90% of upstream and downstream supply chain customers are private small and micro enterprises. Currently, the branch is expanding this model into strategic emerging industries such as intelligent manufacturing and new energy.

Inclusive Finance: Not Constrained by Traditional Models

Inclusive finance is an important area where Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch serves the real economy and fulfills social responsibility. In terms of product innovation, the branch has built a “4+N+X” inclusive finance product system, based on four standardized products: “Hui Diao Loan,” “Hui Shan Loan,” “Hui Lian Loan,” and “Hui Bao Loan.” By combining different scenarios and needs, it provides customers with tailored, personalized financial service solutions.

In Anji County, Anji Township, Huzhou City, the person in charge of a time-and-rain folding fan factory, Zhou Han, can finally sleep soundly.

The craft of making Zhāngwu bamboo folding fans is a Zhejiang provincial-level intangible cultural heritage. Making a single fan requires 108 handmade procedures; the process is long and requires significant capital occupation. In 2024, a surge in orders left this home-workshop-style business facing a funding gap. “People borrowed from relatives and friends, and the pressure was huge. I could only consider getting a loan,” Zhou Han said.

After the Huzhou Anji Sub-branch under the Hangzhou Branch learned about it, it completed credit approval within a week, disbursing 600,000 yuan in personal operating loans and offering a preferential interest rate. Once the funds arrived, the factory successfully purchased raw materials, fulfilled large orders, and also added a livestream room—growing from one to three, with revenue doubling. “Financial support helps us turn traditional handicrafts into an industry. This year is a year of explosive growth,” Zhou Han said.

Supporting the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage is only one slice of inclusive finance. Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch’s inclusive finance practices are not constrained by traditional models. Everything starts from reality.

In Zhoushan, the provincial key project “A Sky City in the Star Sea” is accelerating construction. This is a comprehensive resort integrating hotels, theme parks, and scenic areas, with large capital demand. Instead of applying a traditional model—only calculating accommodation and catering revenues—the Zhoushan Sub-branch under the Hangzhou Branch re-estimated the financing from the perspective of the overall earnings of the cultural tourism complex, and successfully landed the first syndicated project loan for a cultural tourism project within its jurisdiction.

During project推进 (advancement), Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch established a three-level working task force mechanism within Zhejiang Province, strengthening communication and collaboration with local regulatory institutions and development and reform departments. It comprehensively investigated information on financing needs of small and micro enterprise customers to ensure precise docking. At the same time, it cleverly used online service platforms and mobile applications to make it convenient for small and micro enterprises and individual businesses to obtain credit resources anytime and anywhere.

“Sky City in the Star Sea” project image

As introduced, next the Hangzhou Branch will continue to sink its focus to make inclusive finance more solid, bringing practical inclusive finance policies to rural villages and townships where they are needed, so that more owners of real-economy enterprises and small and micro individual businesses benefit from inclusive policies; it will fulfill the original mission of “finance for the people,” increase support for areas such as rural revitalization and the green economy, and promote deep integration between inclusive finance and rural revitalization, as well as green development.

Cross-Border Finance: Help Companies “Go Global” with Less Hassle

Zhejiang is a major open province, and foreign trade and foreign investment are important engines for economic development. Focusing on eight hot scenarios—pilot free trade zone finance, cross-border e-commerce, cross-border risk avoidance, cross-border capital management, cross-border M&A, cross-border trade, cross-border asset custody, and cross-border RMB—Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch has launched a “6+X” cross-border finance service system. It provides comprehensive financial services with on-and-offshore linkage and “bank for investment + bank for trade” integration for cross-border settlement and cross-border investment and financing customers, meeting enterprises’ cross-border finance needs in all dimensions and with personalization. It has formed a “cross-border +” service ecosystem and built the “Pu Ying Cross-Border” gold-letter card (signature brand).

Keeping pace with foreign exchange business opening reforms, the Hangzhou Branch uses digital means to improve the quality and efficiency of cross-border finance services.

A daily-use goods company in Hangzhou mainly sells textile-based daily-use products. Its products are shipped to Europe and the United States and Southeast Asian markets. Each month it generates multiple cross-border receipts and payments needs. “Now, when办理 cross-border payments, I only need to submit an electronic instruction through online banking. The funds arrive at the seconds level. We no longer need to prepare contracts and invoices one by one,” said the company’s finance staff.

After the company was recognized as a Tier-1 business-enabling client, the Hangzhou Branch opened the “Cross-Border Express Remittance” service for it, enabling 7×24-hour “second-level” remittance payments. Business processing efficiency improved by more than 80%, and the turnover efficiency of funds increased significantly.

This convenient experience comes from foreign exchange business opening reforms. Pudong Development Bank has built an end-to-end foreign exchange business enabling framework of “pre-event customer profile identification, in-event differentiated review, and post-event monitoring and analysis.” For high-quality customers, they can办理 (process) most cross-border receipts and payments businesses directly by using instructions. In 2025, the Hangzhou Branch launched the reform across its entire jurisdiction, and it was also supported by online products such as “Cross-Border Express Remittance.”

In terms of service innovation, the Hangzhou Branch was among the first to roll out an application scenario for the cross-border finance service platform called “New Offshore International Trade Business Background Verification.” By integrating multi-party data such as overseas customs, transportation, and ports, it enables “one-stop” trade background verification. In the Wenzhou Branch within its jurisdiction, the first business was landed the next day in the pilot, greatly improving the review efficiency for offshore trade, while also ensuring controllable risks in cross-border finance businesses and effectively helping enterprises respond to risks such as exchange rate fluctuations.

Recently, Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch挂牌 (held a unveiling) and established the “E Road Hui · Hu Yue Cross-Border Finance Workstation” in Yiwu City, Zhejiang — the “World Supermarket.” This is a vivid attempt to implement the head office’s cross-border strategy deployment by empowering the cross-border finance track through the construction of an operating brand workstation. The workstation deeply combines Yiwu’s industrial advantages of “buying globally and selling globally,” as well as a business scale where the annual settlement and remittance of purchases and sales trade exceeds 1 billion U.S. dollars. It focuses on the positioning of “one-stop cross-border services,” and provides service empowerment through specialization, digital intelligence, and distinctive features, helping Yiwu International Trade City merchants set sail for global markets. By building a three-dimensional system of “expert teams + brand services + digital/intelligent ecosystem,” it provides full life-cycle solutions for foreign trade enterprises, including cross-border settlement, exchange-rate risk hedging, and trade financing.

At present, Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch, by establishing a “front, middle, and back office” coordination mechanism, has formed a service system covering multiple scenarios such as cross-border e-commerce, market procurement, and overseas talent payroll, and is committed to making the “E Road Hui · Hu Yue Cross-Border Finance Workstation” a new calling card for Yiwu’s development of foreign trade.

Treasury/Financial Asset Finance: Make Retirement Become “Enjoyable Aging”

Treasury/financial asset finance is an important track for enhancing comprehensive operating capabilities. Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch is committed to improving treasury management efficiency for customers through digital means, providing customers with all-round treasury/financial asset finance services. Focusing on key business customer segments, Pudong Development Bank joined forces with Pacific Life Insurance to launch “Kangyang Xin Space.” The first location is in Hangzhou. The space is equipped with intelligent devices such as smart diagnosis and health monitoring. With two-way collaboration, it creates a new benchmark for health and retirement finance, and becomes a base for the branch to conduct retirement-related activities.

With accelerated population aging, retirement finance has become a concern for people’s livelihoods. Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch actively builds the “Pu Yi Jin Sheng” service brand and constructs a comprehensive retirement finance service system of “12345.” In 2025, the branch partnered with Taibao Life Insurance to customize a distinctive trip featuring “retirement planning + health management.” At the event site, three interactive areas—“health and care mini-station,” “traditional Chinese medicine diagnosis,” and “age-simulation experience”—attracted many young and middle-aged clients. After putting on the age-simulation experience equipment, an post-1980s customer remarked: “In the past, I thought retirement was far away. Only after experiencing it today did I realize how important scientific planning is.”

For pre-retirement (prepared) groups, the branch launched a “1+5” one-stop retirement planning service: one lecture, one account, one set of account books, one set of plans, one online专区 (special area), and one offline consulting specialist. In terms of hardware, they were the first to build two demonstration retirement finance workstations, implement the “six-proceed” commitment for heartwarming services, promote the elderly-friendly renovation of branches, and equip intelligent health monitoring instruments.

In March 2026, Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch, as joint lead underwriter, co-led the issuance of Zhejiang’s first retirement-industry bond worth 300 million yuan, supporting the Int Er Group to lay out an “pharmaceutical and health + retirement service” ecosystem. This funding is specifically used for purchasing medicines for diseases that are highly prevalent among the elderly, with an interest rate of only 1.63%.

Thirty-two years of spring blossoms and autumn results; thirty-two years of forging ahead. Pudong Development Bank (PDB) Hangzhou Branch has used 32 years of time to write a奋斗史 (a struggle history) of shared prosperity between finance and the local economy. Standing at the new starting point of the “15th Five-Year Plan period’s 2026-2030” (the early stage), the bank will continue to be guided by its “digital and intelligent” strategy, and go deeper into five major financial tracks—to inject financial momentum into Zhejiang’s “major economic province bearing a major share of the task.” (Information)