Starting now, bank loans easier to get

By GAO CHANGXIN (China Daily) Updated: 2014-07-01 06:56

In comparison, trusted loans grew just 341 billion yuan in the first five months, only one-third of the 1.1 trillion yuan lent during the same period last year.

The regulatory modification comes after Beijing sent its strongest pro-growth signal yet this year during an executive meeting of the State Council, China's cabinet, on May 30, when Premier Li Keqiang vowed to "step up the financial industry's support to the real economy".

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In more monetary easing, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, cut the reserve requirement ratio for selected banks, those that have met their requirements in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises and the agricultural sector, on April 25, and then again on June 16.

The cuts helped revive economic activity, with the preliminary HSBC Holdings Plc manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index coming in at a seven-month high of 50.8 in May, the first reading above 50－the line dividing expansion and contraction－this year.

According to the CBRC statement, foreign currency loans and deposits will no longer be included in the calculation of lenders' loan-to-deposit ratio. They will be monitored separately, which the CBRC said will prevent "regulatory arbitrage through local-foreign currency conversion".

Another change to the loan calculation is that loans supported by lenders' non-puttable bonds with less than one year to maturity will be taken out of the equation.

Meanwhile, certificates of deposit, a type of large-sum term deposit whose interbank trading was made available this year in China, will be added to the equation when calculating the ratio.