Banks see steep rise in assets
By Xiao Zhang (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-04-27 09:19

The balance sheets of China's banking institutions have fattened considerably in the past three months as banks continue to lend aggressively and residents opt to deposit high percentages of their earnings in bank accounts.

Total assets of banking institutions in the nation, including foreign ones operating here, rose by 17.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis to 28.84 trillion yuan (US$3.47 trillion) at the end of last month, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said yesterday.

The assets rises helped boost the institutions' pre-tax profits to a combined 38.75 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion), surging 53.8 per cent from a year earlier.

Analysts said the asset increases were significantly boosted by rapid rises in loans, as the banks continued to lend at a fast pace to tap into recovering economic activity.

China's credit growth outpaced official targets by a broad margin last year and in the first three months of this year, fuelling over-investment in some sectors and prompting worries about inflation.

In a bid to contain rapid credit growth and soothe inflationary pressures, the People's Bank of China has taken tightening measures such as raising the banks' reserve requirements.

The 11 joint-stock commercial banks had the fastest asset growth in the past three months, with their total assets jumping by 34.3 per cent to 4.09 trillion yuan (US$493 billion), the CBRC said.

The largest four State-owned commercial banks' assets totalled 15.89 trillion yuan (US$1.9 trillion) at the end of March, up 13 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

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