Empowering "Single Person as an Army" Banks Compete in a New Arena

Currently, “One-Person Companies” (OPC) are 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 wave of change, 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.

Industry insiders interviewed by Securities Daily said that commercial banks launching OPC-specific financial services aim to seize potential growth points and plan for the broader new entrepreneurial model. In this two-way effort between banks and “one-person companies,” traditional credit logic is undergoing profound transformation.

Strategic Positioning:

Banks Competing in the New OPC Financial Arena

“Just this afternoon, I obtained the business license for an OPC at the administrative approval hall, and by evening, I had successfully opened a basic corporate account at the bank—impressively efficient!” Recently, the person in charge of Hailan Intelligent Technology (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. experienced the “SPD Speed.” Thanks to the “OPC Corporate Green Channel” service mechanism at the Qingdao branch of SPD Bank, with dedicated personnel handling and expedited review, from data entry to account opening, the process was a smooth “green light” all the way, allowing the company to complete its basic account setup in the shortest time.

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

What’s more surprising for entrepreneurs is the ease of financing. It is reported that Jiangsu Bank’s OPC financial service plan’s core logic has shifted from “making a loan” to “serving a company.” To this end, the bank has launched OPC-exclusive financing products, using industry trends, core technologies, and order information as credit basis, 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 related companies that are “light assets and highly innovative,” focusing on the core development elements of “human resources + computing power,” and building a full lifecycle service system through “investment-loan linkage + ecological empowerment,” fully addressing 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 “initial 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 growing rapidly, 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, and 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 emphasize 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 it as “three shifts”: First, from “physical asset logic” to “people logic.” Traditional credit systems focus on heavy assets, but OPCs’ core assets are founders’ educational background and experience. Second, from “large, low-frequency” to “small, high-frequency.” Traditional credit favors large, clearly purpose-defined loans, while OPCs need small, emergency, working capital loans with “flexible borrowing and repayment.” 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 Finance and Law Institute, told Securities Daily that while an OPC has the “limited liability” company attribute, its behavior also has obvious personal characteristics. The credit logic for OPCs needs to treat individuals as key evaluation targets, focusing on their professional expertise and industry experience, using their behavioral trajectories as an important part of risk assessment. When examining the primary source of repayment, the “limited liability” company attribute 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, and founder issues can easily lead to company termination, with unstable cash flow. 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 to serve OPCs effectively. Luo Feipeng suggests that banks should develop multi-dimensional credit evaluation models based on operational data, technological capabilities, and business orders, and strengthen digital technology applications to establish dynamic risk monitoring mechanisms.

“Banks should establish layered and classified credit strategies—using credit loans with strict limits for early-stage OPCs, and expanding credit appropriately for growth-stage OPCs. They should also 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 Outlook:

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 trends. He sees OPC finance as a core module within the bank’s small and micro enterprise service system, which will exist long-term and evolve continuously. As OPC groups diversify, their forms will keep changing. With ongoing AI capability improvements, the scope of individual work will expand, and OPCs will evolve from “experimental pioneers” to “one of the mainstream entrepreneurial models.”

Will OPC finance become a routine part of banking, 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 fields. But as AI tools penetrate traditional service industries like design, consulting, education, and marketing, the OPC model will naturally spread, and related financial services will expand from niche sci-tech sectors to broader “banking standard service modules.”

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

“It is foreseeable that in the next five to ten years, the evolution of OPC finance will roughly follow this path: from the current ‘differentiated specialty products’ to ‘modular services embedded in routine product lines,’ ultimately leading to ‘integrated accounts with founders at the core, highly integrated company and personal finance systems.’” Zeng Gang believes this is both the future of OPC finance and 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” supported by comprehensive banking financial services. When every creative and tech-savvy entrepreneur can access precise financial support, the vitality of micro entities will translate into robust macroeconomic resilience.