Chinese banking sector's assets up 9.8%

BEIJING -- The total assets in China's banking sector continued to expand in the first half of the year while the industry's non-performing ratio saw a slight increase as the economy faced headwinds.

By the end of June, the total assets of China's banking industry reached 301.5 trillion yuan (about $43.1 trillion), up 9.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

Lenders' outstanding non-performing loans came in at 3.6 trillion yuan, with the bad loan ratio at 2.1 percent, up 0.08 percentage points from the ratio seen at the start of the year, the data showed.

The bad loan ratio is expected to continue to climb as the impact of the economic headwinds is yet to filter through to the sector, according to the commission.

The data also showed that the total assets of the insurance industry stood at 21.7 trillion yuan by the end of June, up 5.7 percent from the beginning of the year.

The premium income of the insurance sector went up 6.4 percent year-on-year to 2.7 trillion yuan in the first half of the year.