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Earlier this week Standard and Poor’s released a headline-grabbing report on global corporate borrowing. The report estimates that there will be $53 trillion in new corporate borrowing between now and 2017. Of that $53 trillion, Chinese corporations will account for a whopping $17.6 trillion, 33 percent of the total. When you dig into the details you [...]
China’s largest policy bank, China Development Bank (CDB), was recently described as “China’s Superbank” by Henry Sanderson and Michael Forsythe. The title seems fitting since CDB’s long standing chairman, Chen Yuan, has often claimed that despite being a policy bank CDB offers a lending model superior to commercial banks. However, CDB may not be so [...]
In 2012, Chinese commercial bank profits grew by 19 percent at the same time regulators increased the flexibility of deposit interest rates. The Peoples Bank of China should take this as an opportunity to continue to gradually liberalize interest rates. A double digit increase in bank profits in 2012 suggests interest rate liberalization should continue [...]
Chinese equity markets are beginning to crackdown on loss-making companies. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange recently delisted two loss-making companies – Jiangsu Chinese Online Logistics and Powerwise Information Technology Co. These were the first two companies be delisted from mainland exchanges since December 2007. The delisting procedures were part of efforts by the China Securities Regulatory [...]
China is conducting a large experiment with interest rate liberalization, albeit in an uncontrolled and seemingly unplanned way. The pace of official interest rate liberalization has been glacial since 2004, only recently revived with the decision to increase flexibility around the benchmark deposit rate. Instead, an alternative system of unregulated deposits called wealth management products [...]
China’s extraordinary real estate boom may finally be over. Multiple indicators suggest that China is on the precipice of a significant market correction. Prices are down in more than half of the 70 cities surveyed by National Bureau of Statistics. Beyond price data (which is subject to some skepticism), residential floor space under construction, residential [...]
Criticism of bank profits has now reached the highest levels of the Chinese political system. In a national radio address this week, Premier Wen Jiabao stated that China’s large banks were excessively profitable. Wen’s solution was to open the system up to private capital and smash the monopoly of the large banks. He even referred [...]
Quarterly profit announcements by Chinese banks this month have set off a national debate over whether the banking sector is excessively profitable. Criticisms of bank profitability have even come from prominent former People’s Bank of China (PBoC) officials. Wu Xiaoling described bank profits as unreasonable (Chinese language) and Li Daokui referred to banks as profit-devouring [...]
The Chinese press is full of stories documenting the difficulties small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have obtaining financing. Contrary to popular belief, the problem is not that SMEs are being crowded out by large enterprises. The SME share of total business loans has been relatively stable in the past several years. Moreover, the pace of [...]
There is a recurring notion that pops up every now and then that the Chinese government has a giant rainy day fund. When growth slows but banks are constrained in expanding lending, analysts start to call on China to tap into these reserves to finance fiscal stimulus. Macquarie: “Running down PBC [People’s Bank of China] [...]