Banks launch probe into lending risks

Banks launched a new round of probes into lending risks in October, as asset quality continues to deteriorate.

Lenders are reviewing their loans to industries such as manufacturing, wholesale and retail, property, construction, transportation, electricity and gas, and water supply, Economic Information, which is owned by Xinhua News Agency, reported on Thursday, citing an executive from the Bank of China who is in charge of lending.

At a meeting in late October, Shang Fulin, the chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said that the "credit risks have started to become exposed in certain industries", and required banks to probe into the loans they extended.

Shang also urged lenders to boost efforts to collect loans and write off the bad loans, the newspaper reported.

Concerns over banks' asset quality have been intensifying as bad loans jumped in the third quarter.

Although the ratio of non-performing loans to total outstanding loans remains stable at about 0.9 percent, the amount of outstanding NPLs increased in the first nine months.

According to data released by the CBRC, from January to September, soured loans increased by more than 50 billion yuan ($7.95 billion), and just in the third quarter those loans rose by more than 24 billion yuan.

Major State-owned banks also reported a sharp increase in NPLs in their third-quarter results.

China Construction saw a surge of 2.5 billion yuan in bad loans during the three months, while Bank of China reported a 537 million yuan increase in NPLs.