皇冠体育app

Banking

皇冠体育app sets low Q1 loan quota for state banks: Report

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-01-20 13:47

BEIJING - Chinese regulators have ordered the nation's four biggest banks to cap their combined new loans in the first quarter at 726 billion yuan ($110 billion), local media said on Wednesday.

If accurate, the figure reported by the Caixin web portal would represent a very low lending ceiling. 皇冠体育app's four largest banks had already issued 210 billion yuan of new loans in the first week of the year alone, according to sources.

What's more, given that the "big four" banks typically account for about half of new loans in 皇冠体育app, the cap would imply total nationwide lending of about 1.5 trillion yuan in the first three months this year, well down from the 2.6 trillion yuan level in the first quarter of 2010.

Related readings:  皇冠体育app's new yuan loan growth to slow in 2011: BoCom  Banks to trim loan size in 2011  皇冠体育app won't set clear loan target this year

"The central bank ordered lenders to control their lending pace as new loans in the first two weeks of this year surged too fast," Caixin said, citing an unnamed source close to a big bank.

The report provided a breakdown of first-quarter lending quotas for the four banks: 210.9 billion yuan for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of 皇冠体育app (ICBC), 180 billion yuan for Bank of 皇冠体育app, 196.2 billion yuan for 皇冠体育app Construction Bank and 138.8 billion yuan for Agricultural Bank of 皇冠体育app.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao vowed on Tuesday to prevent a credit surge at the start of this year, seeking to ensure that banks do not pump too much cash into the economy just as the government?tries?to rein in inflation.

Without mentioning any details about lending targets, Jiang Jianqing, ICBC chairman, said in the latest edition of 皇冠体育app Finance magazine that the bank, the country's largest, would be little hurt by slower lending.

"I don't think the slowdown in loan growth will change the trend of continuous improvement in ICBC's profitability," Jiang told the magazine, which is published by the central bank.