Chinese Banks Face Rising NPLs In Real Estate: Journal

Most Chinese banks saw the ratio of non-performing real estate loans rise to varying degrees in 2021, the China Securities Journal reported citing annual reports from listed banks. The rate of non-performing real estate loans in ICBC, one of the big four state-owned banks, rose by 2.47 percentage points to 4.79% from 2020 to 2021, while that of smaller banks such as Bank of Suzhou had rose by 5 pps to above 5%, the newspaper said. Though the risk is generally controllable, banks will respond by conducting stress tests, strengthening list management, and increasing credit loss reserves, while meeting reasonable financing needs in real estate, the Journal said.