Chinese banks reduce bad loan ratio, expand total assets

BEIJING, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese banks' average bad loan ratio was
reduced to 5.49 percent by the end of September while the total assets of the
country's banking industry expanded to 59.3 trillion yuan (8.5 trillion U.S.
dollars), said the country's banking regulator on Monday.

Commercial banks had a total of 1.27 trillion yuan of non-performing loans
as of Sept. 30, down 3 billion yuan from the beginning of the year, said China
Banking Regulatory Commission (CSRC). The bad loan ratio was 0.67 percentage
points higher at the year's beginning.

The country's five largest lenders, Industrial and Commercial Bank of
China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and
Bank of Communications, had 1.12 billion yuan of bad loans by the end of
September, accounting for 7.35 percent of their total advances.

Whereas smaller national lenders, or joint-stock banks, and city banks cut
their bad loan ratio to 1.59 percent and 2.54 percent respectively, rural
commercial banks and foreign banks had4.44 percent and 0.50 percent of their
lending unpaid, both slightly higher than the levels in the year's
beginning.