State banks to up credit, optimize loan structure

China's large State-owned commercial banks said they will maintain reasonable credit growth, further optimize their loan structure and appropriately grant loans early on this year to support the real economy.

Since the beginning of this year, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has fully grasped the need for stabilizing growth and the momentum of China's economic recovery, and continued to increase the intensity of credit granting. Currently, the bank's domestic renminbi-denominated corporate loans have increased by more than 1 trillion yuan ($145.2 billion) from the beginning of the year, reaching a historical level, said Zhang Wenwu, senior executive vice-president of ICBC.

The bank has further optimized its loan structure, with the loan balance for strategic emerging industries exceeding 2 trillion yuan. Loans for consumer goods such as housing, new energy vehicles and catering and tourism have also grown rapidly, promoting faster consumption recovery, Zhang said.

Due to the strong demand for credit, loans issued by Agricultural Bank of China in the first two months reached a new high. As of the end of February, its renminbi-denominated loans grew by 891.2 billion yuan year-on-year. The increase is over 280 billion yuan larger compared with the same period last year, showing the steady upward trend of the Chinese economy, said Zhang Xuguang, executive vice-president of the bank.

Among the loans, the growth of ABC's lending to the manufacturing, strategic emerging and green industries was 11.7 percent, 20.7 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively.

Zhang Xiaodong, executive vice-president at Bank of China, said that BOC and its subsidiaries are expected to maintain an overall asset growth of 8 to 10 percent in 2023, with a steady increase in renminbi-denominated loans and increased efforts to revitalize renminbi bond investments.

China's economic recovery has accelerated since the beginning of this year, with outstanding aggregate financing to the real economy growing faster than expected. Demand for corporate credit has continued to rebound while demand for household credit has marginally improved. Looking ahead to the full year, BOC will appropriately increase the size of new loans and keep loan growth at a reasonable level, Zhang Xiaodong said.

The bank will increase its support for technology innovation, manufacturing, green industries, energy supply and the private sector of the economy, and further enhance inclusive financial services for micro and small enterprises, rural vitalization and county-level economies, he said.

In terms of personal loans, BOC will increase its efforts in providing home mortgages, enrich its products and services to support consumption upgrades and promote the expansion of non-housing consumption loans, he said.

China Construction Bank will build new business tracks for personal business loans regarding individually owned businesses, merchants and farmers, striving for a significant improvement in personal lending this year, said Cui Yong, executive vice-president of the bank.

CCB will also strengthen efforts to further promote inclusive finance and offer many new products to meet demand in this regard, Cui said.

At the end of last year, its outstanding loan balance to the manufacturing sector reached 2.24 trillion yuan, increasing more than 32 percent year-on-year. The balance of its green loans reached 2.75 trillion yuan, up over 40 percent.

It is expected that CCB will continue to support manufacturing, green development and technological innovation this year at the same pace as credit growth last year, Cui said.