China’s central bank is stepping up efforts to help small companies weather the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic as part of a broader government strategy to support the economy and protect jobs.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the Ministry of Finance have set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to channel as much as 440 billion yuan ($62 billion) of funds to regional banks so that they can provide new loans or roll over maturing loans to small businesses, including those impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak, Deputy Governor Pan Gongsheng said (link in Chinese) at a briefing on Tuesday to explain what the central bank described as two “new monetary policy tools” announced the previous day.