Banks' assets, liabilities decline

Assets and liabilities of Chinese lenders both showed declines from a month earlier by the end of October, according to figures released by China Banking Regulatory Commission on Monday.

Total assets among banks stood at 125.8 trillion yuan by the end of October, down by 650 billion yuan from that of September. Total liabilities registered 117.4 trillion yuan, a decrease of 800 billion yuan from one month earlier.

This is the third time that banks have witnessed a “double dip” this year. The other two occasions were in April and July.

Assets of major commercial banks declined by nearly 1.1 trillion yuan in October, while that of joint stock lenders shrank by 140 billion yuan. Rural commercial banks saw an asset decline of 30.5 billion yuan.

Liability among major banks dropped by 1.1 trillion yuan during the same period, while that of joint stock banks went down by 54.9 billion yuan.

The declines were partly due to less dependence on banking credit when enterprises seek financing channels, said analysts.

According to data released by the central bank, new yuan loans extended by lenders stood at 505.2 billion yuan in October, 81.6 billion yuan less than the same period last year. The proportion of lending to aggregate financing fell to somewhere below 40 percent from the 58.2 percent at the end of last year.