Alibaba's new service aims to help SMEs

Alibaba has partnered with seven banks in launching online loan services to small and medium-sized trade companies. [File Photo: CNSPHOTO]

Alibaba has partnered with seven banks in launching online loan services to small and medium-sized trade companies.

The banks in the partnership, including Bank of China, China Merchants Bank and China Construction Bank, will decide on their own whether to issue the loans, solely based on the companies' business performance data provided by Alibaba.

If a company completes three deals in six months with a trade volume of over 100,000 dollars, it can qualify for a loan of up to 10 million yuan, or 1.6 million dollars. The loan's size will be pegged to the company's performance.

Analysts believe the big data advocated by Internet companies has reshuffled the financial industry.

Alibaba says the interest rate is set at 12 percent annually.