(Yicai Global) Feb. 6 -- China's main banks will allow credit card repayments by people in financial straits because of the novel coronavirus outbreak to be delayed in line with requirements laid out by the central bank at the start of this month.

Six state-owned lenders and many others have issued rules that allow qualifying clients to delay card repayments, Beijing Business Today reported today.

The People's Bank of China issued policies to prevent and control the disease on Feb. 1. It called on financial institutions to help those affected by flexibly adjusting home mortgages, reasonably deferring credit card repayments and reducing financial service fees. They must also refrain from blacklisting those who overdraw their accounts on China's official registry of deadbeats.

As a result, China Construction Bank will allow medical, military and government personnel active in disease prevention and control to put off their repayments up to three times for 30 days each. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China will also allow its qualifying customers to reschedule their repayments and revise their credit records.

China Zheshang Bank will permit those unable to resume work after the country's Lunar New Year holiday -- which was extended to 10 days this year from its usual one week -- to postpone repayments. They can delay for up to 30 days in the contagion's ground zero of central Hubei province and for a maximum of 15 days in eastern Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and in Shanghai. In other areas, the period will be 10 days at most.

Editor: Ben Armour