Auction firms, pawn shops and financial leasing companies are playing an increasingly important role in commodity distribution, providing financing services to small firms, an official of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Total auction transaction value reached 575.4 billion yuan ($93.7 billion) in 2012, when statistics were first available, MOFCOM's data showed.

Pawn shops issued loans of 234 billion yuan in the first nine months of this year, up 23.2 percent year-on-year; and financial leasing had revenues of 65.5 billion yuan by the end of 2012, growing 96.11 percent compared with 2011, according to the MOFCOM.

There are foreign-invested auction firms and financial leasing companies in China, but not pawn shops. However, foreign investors are allowed to invest in pawnshops in the Shanghai free trade zone, said Zhang Shudong, deputy director of Department of Circulation Industry Development of MOFCOM.