BEIJING - China had 7,086 small-credit companies with a total loan balance of 704.3 billion yuan ($114.14 billion) at the end of June, according to the central bank on Monday.

The People's Bank of China said the credit expansion realized by small-credit companies in the first half stood at 112.1 billion yuan.

Small-credit companies provide financial services mainly for small- and micro-sized enterprises, people with low incomes and private rural households.

The report showed that East China's Jiangsu province had 529 small-credit companies, the most of any provincial-level region, followed by Northeast China's Liaoning province and North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.