CHINA PRESS: Early Mortgage Repayments Adding Banks' Pressure

Early mortgage repayments are impacting banks’ profitability and increasing operating costs, China Securities Journal reported. Outstanding mortgages in six major state-owned banks totalled CNY25.49 trillion in H1, down more than CNY320 billion from end-2023. Banks are reluctant to enforce relationship-damaging penalties, despite incurring additional manpower and resource costs needed to process early repayments, the newspaper said. Authorities should encourage commercial banks to innovate new re-lending and re-mortgage products, especially interest calculation methods to balance the interests of both parties better, the newspaper said, citing an unnamed industry insider.