Empowering "Solo Forces" as Banks Compete in a New Arena

Reporter Yang Jie

Currently, “One Person Company” (OPC) is becoming a new entrepreneurial paradigm in the AI era, with more and more entrepreneurs joining in.

In response to the rise of OPCs, many banks are actively embracing the changes of the times, building a new financial service system that adapts to the digital economy, serves super-individuals, and empowers flexible employment, launching exclusive financial products or services for OPCs.

An industry insider told Securities Daily that commercial banks are launching OPC-specific financial services to seize potential business growth points and plan for a broader new model of mass entrepreneurship. In this bid between banks and “one-person companies,” traditional credit logic is undergoing profound transformation.

Strategic Positioning:

Banks Compete in the New OPC Financial Track

“Just this afternoon, I obtained the OPC business license from the administrative approval hall, and by evening, I had successfully opened a basic corporate account at the bank—such efficiency was surprising!” Recently, the head of Hailan Intelligent Technology (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. experienced the “SPD Bank speed.” Thanks to SPD Bank Qingdao Branch’s “OPC Green Channel” service mechanism, with dedicated staff and expedited review, from data entry to account opening, the entire process was smooth and fast, allowing the company to complete its basic account setup in the shortest time.

This is not an isolated case. At Bank of China Qingdao Central Business District Branch, Qingdao Yuan Yu Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., the first OPC business license holder in Qingdao for the year, also enjoyed a “one set of materials, one-time completion” green channel service, significantly reducing processing time.

What’s more, entrepreneurs are delighted by the ease of financing. It is reported that Jiangsu Bank’s OPC financial service scheme centers on shifting from “making a loan” to “serving a company.” The bank has launched OPC-exclusive financing products, using industry trends, core technology, and order information as credit bases, enabling instant approval, quick loans, and flexible repayment, truly making technology generate credit and credit convert into funds.

Nanjing Bank has launched a special “OPC Tongxin Plan,” targeting the characteristics of “light assets, strong innovation” of related companies, focusing on the core development elements of “human + computing power,” and building a full lifecycle service system through “investment-loan linkage + ecological empowerment,” to comprehensively address financing bottlenecks and service pain points during OPC growth.

Meanwhile, local authorities are also signaling positive signals. On March 16, the Guangdong Development and Reform Commission issued the “Guangdong Province Support for Artificial Intelligence OPC Innovation Development Action Plan (2026-2028),” which mentions optimizing full-cycle credit services. Under the premise of legality, compliance, and risk controllability, it supports banking financial institutions to launch AI OPC financial products and services tailored to different stages such as startup, growth, expansion, and maturity.

“Multiple banks are deploying OPC financial services, which is a proactive response by the financial industry to the profound changes in the entrepreneurial ecosystem brought by the AI era.” Zeng Gang, chief expert and director of the Shanghai Financial and Development Laboratory, told Securities Daily. From a strategic perspective, this is a choice for banks to open new blue oceans amid intensified competition in traditional corporate and retail markets. The OPC customer base is large and rapidly growing, with dual attributes of “corporate settlement” and “personal credit.” Whoever builds a suitable system first will gain an advantage in the market competition over the next decade.

Luo Feipeng, researcher at China Postal Savings Bank, told Securities Daily that OPCs are high-growth potential customer groups. Banks can compete for future high-quality enterprise accounts and data assets through services. Additionally, OPC entrepreneurs are mostly technical talents with high value-added creation capabilities, serving as an important entry point for banks to cultivate future “unicorns.”

Industry Consensus:

Reconstructing Risk Control Models and Approval Processes

“Traditional financial services often focus on assets and neglect data application. The conventional credit model, which excels in large, low-frequency, heavily collateralized loans, is difficult to adapt to the new operational needs of small, high-frequency, light-assets businesses. When facing the real demands of OPCs for ‘one-stop, lightweight, comprehensive’ services, risk control logic and service processes are particularly lagging,” said Jiangsu Bank.

On the surface, banks serve the legal entity of “one-person companies,” but the underlying credit logic has undergone profound changes. Zeng Gang summarized these as “three shifts”: First, from “asset logic” to “people logic.” Traditional credit systems focus on heavy assets, but OPCs’ core assets are founders’ educational backgrounds and experience. Second, from “large, low-frequency” to “small, high-frequency.” Traditional credit favors large, purpose-specific loans, while OPCs need small, emergency, revolving funds with “borrow-and-repay” flexibility. Third, from “single financing” to “full-cycle companionship.” Banks are no longer just fund providers but are upgrading to full-chain service models, accelerating digital transformation.

Yang Haiping, researcher at the Shanghai Financial and Legal Research Institute, told Securities Daily that while OPCs are “limited liability” companies, their behaviors have clear personal characteristics. For OPC credit assessment, individuals should be key evaluation targets, focusing on their professional expertise and industry experience, using their behavioral trajectories as important risk assessment factors. When examining the primary repayment source, the “limited liability” nature of the company must also be fully considered.

Behind these opportunities lie challenges. Zeng Gang believes that OPC financial risk control faces three main issues: First, fragile operations—single-person companies have weak risk resistance, founders’ issues can lead to company termination, and cash flow stability is poor. Second, information opacity—OPCs rely on AI and digital platforms, making it difficult to verify operational status through traditional reports, and order and income data are hard to validate. Third, concentrated sector risks—many OPCs are clustered in a few fields, and technological changes in these sectors can trigger localized systemic risks.

Banks must break path dependence and reconstruct risk control models and approval processes for OPCs, which has become industry consensus. Luo Feipeng suggests that banks should build multi-dimensional credit evaluation models based on operational data, technological capabilities, and business orders, and strengthen digital applications to establish dynamic risk monitoring mechanisms.

“Bank should establish layered and classified credit strategies: for emerging OPCs, mainly use credit loans with strict quota controls; for growing OPCs, appropriately expand credit. Meanwhile, actively introduce platform data cooperation and build dynamic monitoring models to replace manual due diligence with data-driven approaches, maintaining risk control bottom lines, avoiding lowering standards, and preventing credit asset quality risks,” Zeng Gang said.

Future New Landscape:

“From Differentiated Exploration to Normalized Service”

Regarding the future of OPC financial services, Zeng Gang believes that it is necessary to look beyond current market enthusiasm and focus on longer-term structural judgments. He sees OPC finance as a core module that will exist long-term and evolve continuously within the bank’s small and micro enterprise service system. As AI capabilities continue to improve, the scope of individual work that can be done independently will expand, and OPCs will evolve from “experiments by early adopters” to “one of the mainstream entrepreneurial forms.”

Will OPC finance become a normalized banking business, or remain a niche in sci-tech finance? Zeng Gang believes both will advance simultaneously. In the short term, OPC finance will indeed appear as part of sci-tech finance, focusing on high-tech sectors like AI, content, and software, developing mature product matrices and standardized risk models in these tracks. But as AI tools penetrate into design, consulting, education, marketing, and other traditional service industries, the OPC model will naturally spread, and related financial services will expand from niche sci-tech sectors to broader “standardized banking modules.”

“OPC represents a new mode of individual productivity in the AI era, with long-term and structural financial needs. In the future, OPC finance may become a routine part of banking, but with differentiated development. Leading banks will build ecological service systems, while small and medium banks can focus on vertical fields to offer specialized services,” Luo Feipeng said. As data accumulates and risk control models improve, OPC services will expand from sci-tech fields to more industries, becoming an important area for bank digital transformation and inclusive finance development.

“It is foreseeable that in the next five to ten years, the evolution path of OPC finance will roughly be: from today’s ‘differentiated specialty products’ gradually iterating into ‘modular services embedded in routine product lines,’ ultimately moving toward ‘integrated accounts with founders at the core, highly integrated company and personal financial services’.” Zeng Gang believes this not only represents the future of OPC finance but also highlights an important direction for banks to serve small and micro entities in the digital economy era.

From Qingdao to Nanjing and then to Guangdong, more and more light-asset, high-growth OPCs are achieving “single-person formation” under the support of comprehensive banking financial services. When every creative and tech-savvy entrepreneur can access precise financial support, the vitality of micro entities will translate into strong macroeconomic resilience.

(Edited by Qian Xiaorui)

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