You know you are on to something big when the Chinese premier attends your launch. On Monday, Li Keqiang sent out the first trial loan for a new bank called Webank . Given that his other attempts to boost the economy revolve around more traditional monetary policy, this was something of a departure. But Mr Li’s comments at the launch show that the government wants the private sector to help fund an area of the economy ignored by the big state-owned banks: small business.

Small and medium enterprises are estimated to account for as many as three-quarters of China’s new jobs, yet funding is scarce. Implicit state guarantees, as well as national quotas on loan disbursements, push the majority of mainstream financing towards state-owned enterprises. While SOEs may get discounts to the 6 per cent benchmark, the few SMEs that can get formal bank loans may pay up to 10 per cent. Outside the bank system, Goldman Sachs says informal rates can be four times as high.

Enter Shenzhen-based Webank, 30 per cent owned by Hong Kong-listed internet group Tencent. It is the first bank to launch from six private entities granted a licence by the banking regulator last year, and aims to be online only. Competition will come: Ant Financial, an affiliate of New York-listed Alibaba, is tying up with Fosun International to launch MYbank.