Chinese lenders' growth of total assets fell in Feb

Newly released official figures showed that the growth of total assets among Chinese lenders continued to fall in February, while banks reported the weakest increase in profits.

Total banking assets reached 133.5 trillion yuan ($21.27 trillion) by the end of February, up 17.3 percent year-on-year, according to data released by the China Banking Regulatory Commission on Tuesday.

The pace fell from the 18.7 percent growth in assets seen one month earlier.

Banks' total liabilities rose 17.1 percent to 124.5 trillion yuan as of last month.

Joint-stock commercial lenders reported the biggest decline in asset growth, although they maintained the fastest growth compared with their counterparts.

The asset growth of the joint-stock lenders fell from January's 32.9 percent to February's 29.6 percent. Their total assets stood at 23.9 trillion yuan, which represents nearly 18 percent of total banking assets.

The assets of major State-owned lenders, which accounted for nearly 44 percent of the total banking assets, increased 9.5 percent year on year to 58.2 trillion yuan.

And assets among urban commercial banks were at 12.3 trillion yuan by the end of last month, up 25.8 percent.