Shaky trust product promises repayment

Trust products rarely default in China, as most are sold by State-owned lenders and thus are considered to carry a de facto endorsement by the state.

The lenders also have a strong incentive to uphold their reputations, making it a typical practice that trust products repay investors in full in China.

It's still unclear who delivered the funds to make the payments. ICBC Chairman Jiang Jianqing told CNBC on Friday during the World Economic Forum in Davos that "ICBC will not necessarily pay the funds to investors" and that the incident serves as a good opportunity to "educate" investors, trust companies and the bank.

Chen Xingde, vice-general manager of China International Fund Management Co Ltd, said he believes a third party might have bought assets under the trust plan.

Shanxi Zhenfu had announced earlier that it had acquired mining rights from the local government for two coal mines in Shanxi province.

"The mining rights were at the core of Zhenfu's problem. Now that it has gotten the rights, the trust regains its value," said Chen.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC said in a Saturday report that it did not expect ICBC to bail out the program as it had no legal ground to do so and that damage to its reputation from a default was considered manageable.

The agency added that a bailout by ICBC could lead to a review of ICBC's credit profile as it shows that the banking sector's actual credit exposure to shadow banking could be greater than what is currently thought.

"We expect Chinese banks to take differentiated positions toward distressed wealth management products they have distributed," Qiang Liao, Standard & Poor's senior director, said in the report.

"Chinese banks are unlikely to bail out high-yield wealth management products unless the banks happen to be the originator of the product," he said.

In China, most high-yield wealth management products are generated by trust companies, which may prove to be a weak link in China's financial system, according to the agency.

AFP contributed to this story.

Shadow banking	PBOC sets sights on 'zombie' financing vehicles