What does' elderly care 'look like in your heart? Different people may have different answers, but they all rely on the support of financial forces. At the end of 2024, the People's Bank of China and nine other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Financial Support for the High quality Development of China's Silver Hair Economy in Elderly Care Services", proposing to focus on providing diversified elderly care financial services for different elderly groups, increase financial resource allocation for rural elderly care needs, and expand credit investment for silver hair economy operators and industrial clusters. Recently, reporters visited enterprises and elderly care institutions in Linyi and Rizhao, Shandong and found that changes brought about by financial support are quietly happening. On May 9th of this year, the People's Bank of China announced the establishment of a 500 billion yuan service consumption and elderly care re loan to stimulate and guide financial institutions to increase financial support for key areas of service consumption and elderly care industries. The reporter learned during an interview in Linyi that Shandong Aishule Sanitary Products Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Aishule") has benefited from the support of refinancing tools. Aishule is a leading enterprise in the field of adult incontinence care in China. The company's independently developed "Network Intelligent Connected Adult Diapers" monitor real-time health data such as body pressure and temperature through the cloud. The products cover 90% of the elderly departments in top tier hospitals and more than 3000 elderly care institutions nationwide. Recently, Agricultural Bank of China Linyi Branch issued a loan of 35 million yuan to the enterprise, with a weighted average interest rate of 3.2%, lower than the bank's average interest rate for the same period. At present, the loan has applied for service consumption and pension refinancing support, with a refinancing interest rate of 1.5%. Since the beginning of this year, under the guidance of the Linyi Branch of the People's Bank of China, our bank has fully utilized the policies of service consumption and re lending for the elderly, established a normalized tracking mechanism for elderly care enterprise projects, timely adjusted and optimized financial support strategies around funding needs, and formed a closed-loop management model of accurate pre loan analysis, efficient approval during loans, and continuous post loan services. At the same time, special support measures for elderly care finance will be introduced to increase financial support in the field of inclusive elderly care. Small and micro enterprises in the fields of medical and health care, rehabilitation and nursing will be included in the key support list for inclusive loans, and efforts will be made to build a brand of inclusive elderly care finance. ”Fang Xiandong, member of the Party Committee and Vice President of Agricultural Bank of China Linyi Branch, introduced to the reporter. At the end of August, the balance of the bank's pension industry loans was 329 million yuan, an increase of 67.9% compared to the beginning of the year. Not only state-owned banks, but also local city commercial banks and rural commercial banks are actively investing in elderly care services. At Tianhe Elderly Care Service Center in Yinan County, medical staff are leading elderly people to do health exercises. We participated in the 2025 Shandong Elderly Care Service Consumption Boosting Year Bank Enterprise Matchmaking Activity and signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Qilu Bank Linyi Yinan Branch, receiving valuable financial support, "said Gao Yusen, the head of the center. Lanshan Rural Commercial Bank has deep cooperation with various fields such as human resources and social security, healthcare, and cultural tourism to promote the "bank operation" of elderly care services. We have embedded more than 100 smart ATMs in 74 bank branches within our jurisdiction with the 'Human Resources and Social Security Convenience Service' function. Elderly customers can apply for 17 convenient services such as pension payment information inquiry and pension qualification certification at the branches, "said Wang Zhaoju, the head of the bank. Linyi is the city with the largest elderly population in Shandong Province. Faced with the huge demand for inclusive elderly care, Linyi City is exploring the development path of elderly care finance with local characteristics through multi-party collaboration, product innovation, and service upgrading. ”Ke Xiangdong, a member of the Party Committee and Vice President of the Linyi Branch of the People's Bank of China, stated that we have established a chain management mechanism of "five major articles" with the top leader serving as the chain leader, the deputy chain leader serving as the head in charge, and 13 functional departments as members, accelerating the construction of "two mechanisms" of departmental policy coordination and efficient financial linkage. At the same time, we will implement the statistical system for pension finance, establish a mechanism for reporting the quality and efficiency of pension finance services, report bank pension finance data on a quarterly basis, conduct a semi annual assessment and evaluation of financial institutions' pension finance, further strengthen the main responsibility of financial institutions, urge financial institutions to strengthen weak links in pension finance, and improve the quality and efficiency of pension finance services. Digitization to meet diverse needs has become a trend in Rizhao, where health and wellness travel have become increasingly popular. Grandma Zhang, who is 88 years old this year, has been living in Shanhai Ruiyi Health Care Center for more than a year. After retiring, she finally chose to start her retirement life at Shanhai Ruiyi Health Care Center. Rizhao is a great city with a pleasant environment and fresh air. The health center has a professional care team and is well-equipped in terms of food, housing, nursing, and medical care. I feel at home living here and am particularly satisfied, "said Grandma Zhang. Shanhai Ruiyi Health Care Center was established in 2023, with a building area of 7000 square meters and a total of 77 rooms, capable of accommodating 160 elderly people at the same time. The situations of different elderly people are different, and how to meet their diverse needs requires digital means to support it. "Qin Xujian, the head of Shanhai Ruiyi Health Care Center, introduced that it is currently signing a cooperation agreement with the Shanhaitian branch of Rizhao Bank on the smart silver age scene, and has launched the Rizhao Bank Smart Silver Age Service Platform for elderly care institutions. The platform deeply integrates the four core modules of elderly care institution file management, service execution, financial accounting, and intelligent security through the use of financial technology. Through IoT sensing devices and big data dynamic monitoring, the elderly care records, cost settlement processes, park security warnings and other links are included in the full chain digital governance to assist elderly care institutions in comprehensively improving their management and digital level. The reporter learned that by building a smart elderly care service platform and constructing four end applications including user mini programs, elderly care institutions, government supervision, and operation management, Rizhao Bank is actively building an elderly care service hub, gathering various resources such as elderly care service institutions, community service centers, medical and home services, providing diversified services such as life care, elderly canteens, health checkups, and senior universities, and achieving information sharing and precise allocation. Taking the user mini program as an example, lightweight applications can provide elderly users with convenient access to home care services such as "meal assistance, bathing assistance, cleaning assistance, medical assistance, emergency assistance, and transportation assistance". They support functions such as registering for senior university courses, online consultation and registration, searching for elderly care resources, exchanging exclusive benefits for bank elderly care, and ordering health care travel and elderly care shopping malls, building a comprehensive service network for the elderly. The user mini program also supports the function of binding family members. Through intelligent devices, it can query the status of the elderly in real time, browse the care records and activity photos of hospitalized elderly, and provide intelligent services to the elderly and their families in an "online+offline" linkage manner, improving the quality of life of the elderly in their later years. ”Yuan Lingling, Vice President of Rizhao Bank, introduced to reporters. Data shows that as of the end of March 2025, there are a total of 66 elderly care institutions in Rizhao City, with a total of nearly 10000 beds; 1250 beds for health and wellness living have been set up, creating a comprehensive service system of "health, wellness, medical care, and tourism". Since 2024, the five major health and wellness tourism institutions in the city have received 29000 elderly people for their health and wellness tourism throughout the year, and have been listed as cooperative destinations for health and wellness tourism by more than 20 departments, enterprises, and travel agencies. Rizhao is famous for its' blue sky, blue sea, and golden sandy beach ', and has the unique advantage of' mountain and sea health preservation '. The aging population in the city is relatively high, and the combination of medical care and elderly care, as well as the tourism and elderly care industries, have a good foundation in upstream and downstream industries. We conscientiously implement the deployment requirements of the "Five Major Articles" and "One Breakthrough in One Region" of the People's Bank of China Shandong Branch in finance, take pension finance as a key breakthrough task, adhere to the "five in one" approach of improving the policy system, strengthening organizational guarantees, smoothing financing channels, enriching financial products, and optimizing financial services, and actively promote the creation of a demonstration zone for pension finance ecology. ”Jia Shimin, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the People's Bank of China Rizhao Branch, stated. Many private enterprises also have great enthusiasm for promoting financial innovation and accurately empowering the development prospects of the silver haired economy. Recently, the financing difficulties that have troubled the chairman of Rizhao Jiahao Yintai Elderly Care Service Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiahao Yintai"), Bo Zizhan, are expected to be properly resolved. Previously, a bank provided us with a loan of 1.8 million yuan for apartment building decoration, but this is far from meeting the funding needs of the entire elderly care community, "Bo Zizhan told reporters. Approved by the Civil Affairs Bureau of Rizhao City, Jiahao Shuxiangli, invested and constructed by Jiahao Yintai, is a comprehensive elderly care community mainly focused on home-based elderly care, as well as residential and health care apartments. The project covers an area of 50000 square meters, with a building area of over 60000 square meters. A total of 600 home-based elderly care apartments, 60 health care apartments, and 150 residential elderly care apartments are designed, which can meet the elderly living needs of more than 1300 people. The community is equipped with hospitals, canteens, reading rooms, senior universities, outdoor cultural and sports squares, vegetable plantations, children's activity centers, youth apartments, etc. It is one of the larger and higher quality elderly care communities in Rizhao city. Similar to many elderly care institutions, the financing difficulties of this elderly care community are highlighted by the fact that social welfare land and facilities are not within the scope of qualified collateral of financial institutions, resulting in greater difficulty in applying for loan business. In response to the financing constraints on the development and growth of the elderly care industry, China Construction Bank innovatively tested the use rights of social welfare land such as land for elderly care service facilities and elderly care service facilities obtained by for-profit elderly care institutions as collateral, breaking the bottleneck of unqualified collateral for elderly care institution operation or project construction loans. At present, the Shandong Branch of Construction Bank has granted a credit of 30 million yuan using social welfare land and housing as collateral for the decoration of the remaining 5 elderly apartment buildings, which has been approved by the committee. The innovation of financial institutions is not limited to elderly care institutions. Recently, the first loan in the field of elderly education in Shandong Province was implemented at Rizhao Vocational College of Health and Wellness. It is reported that Rizhao Vocational College of Health and Wellness is the first vocational college in Shandong Province specializing in health and wellness. It is a private full-time higher vocational college under the supervision of the Shandong Provincial Department of Education. As of May 2025, the school has a planned area of 522 acres and a construction area of 230000 square meters. It has 7 secondary colleges and 9 vocational majors, with over 1900 students currently enrolled. Since its first enrollment in 2024, the school has been facing a significant funding gap, with funds mainly used for infrastructure construction such as dormitory buildings, training buildings, and underground parking garages on campus. ”Liu Wenjun, Vice Dean of Rizhao Vocational College of Health and Wellness, told reporters that the Rizhao Branch of Bank of Communications learned during the visit to the college that the college's funds were tight. They formed a consortium with the Rizhao Branch of Postal Savings Bank of China and jointly awarded us 180 million yuan through construction in progress mortgage and guarantor guarantee, bringing us "timely rain". At present, the consortium has disbursed a loan of 143 million yuan with a term of 10 years to support the college in cultivating nursing, rehabilitation and other professional talents. Li Yunshan, member of the Party Committee and Vice President of the Shandong Branch of the People's Bank of China, stated that as one of the "five major articles" in finance, pension finance plays an important role in serving people's livelihoods by connecting the funding side, service side, and industry side in response to the aging process. In recent years, the People's Bank of China Shandong Branch has made efforts to refine and improve the policy system, deepen departmental cooperation, and promote the connection between banks and enterprises, in order to continuously improve the quality and efficiency of pension financial services throughout the province. Data shows that as of the end of August 2025, the balance of loans for the elderly care industry in Shandong Province was 16.46 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.3%, which was 35.7 percentage points higher than the overall loan growth rate. The average loan interest rate was 3.57%, a year-on-year decrease of 35 basis points. (New Society)