Bank assets witness rapid rise By Zhang Dingmin (China Daily) Updated: 2004-03-10 08:37
The assets and liabilities of China's financial institutions rose rapidly
last year as deposits and loans expanded to fuel the nation's robust economic
growth.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said yesterday that the total
assets of financial institutions, including foreign ones operating in the
country, grew by 16.8 per cent on a year-on-year basis to 27.6 trillion (US$3.3
trillion) at the end of last year, 2.4 percentage points faster than the
previous year.
Their total liabilities stood at 26.57 trillion yuan (US$3.2 trillion) at the
end of 2003, up 17.2 per cent year-on-year, 2.3 percentage points faster than
2002.
Chinese banks lent aggressively to tap recovering economic activity,
refuelling over-investment in steel, cement and aluminum sectors, as bank
deposits continued to expand last year.
The total assets of China's four State-owned commercial banks rose by 13.7
per cent on a year-on-year basis to 15.19 trillion yuan (US$1.83 trillion) at
the end of last year, or 55 per cent of all assets by financial institutions,
the commission said. Their total liabilities grew by 14.1 per cent to 14.58
trillion yuan (US$1.75 trillion).
Last year's rapid credit growth has prompted worries about the quality of
Chinese banks' new loans. Chinese banking institutions' total non-performing
loans stood at 2.4 trillion yuan (US$289 billion), or some 15 per cent of
outstanding loans, at the end of last year.
The Chinese Government injected US$45 billion of capital into the Bank of
China and the China Construction Bank late last year to prepare them for initial
public offerings.