Policy banks get $90b cash infusion

China's foreign exchange reserve injected more than $90 billion into the country's development and policy banks in July, strengthening supports on overseas investments and domestic construction projects, a central bank official said on Tuesday.

The Sycamore Tree Investment Platform, a company owned by the foreign exchange reserve regulator – the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, injected $48 billion into China Development Bank (CDB) on July 15 and provide $45 billion to the Export-Import Bank of China on July 20.

As the official said, capital raising is a curtail part during the massive reform process for the three major development and policy banks, and the other one is the Agricultural Development Bank of China.

The reform plan was approved by the State Council, targeting to diversify financial services in support of economic growth.

It plans that the CDB will be transformed into a "development-oriented financial institution" and its financial services will support the nation's development strategy based on a market-oriented approach. The Ex-Im is responsible for raising funds to support Chinese enterprises' "going out" strategy.

So far the total registered capital of the CDB, the country's second-largest bond issuer after the Ministry of Finance, has increased to 421.2 billion yuan, up from the previous 306.7 billion yuan. Its owner's total equity rose to 986.3 billion yuan from 667.6 billion yuan.

The largest shareholder of the CDB is Financial Ministry, holding 36.54 percent of its shares. The Central Huijin Investment Ltd owns 34.68 percent, while the foreign exchange reserve has 27.19 percent. The rest 1.59 percent was held by the social security fund.

For the Export-Import Bank of China, it saw a capital increase to 150 billion yuan, up from 5 billion yuan. The owners' equity boosted to 308.5 billion yuan from 28.2 billion yuan.

The foreign exchange reserve owns 89.26 percent of the Ex-Im shares while the other 10.74 percent belongs to the Finance Ministry.

After the injection, the CDB's capital adequacy ratio improved to 11.41 percent, and that for the Ex-Im rose to 12.77 percent.

"Capital injection from the foreign exchange reserve will help to enhance supports on the country's development plans, including the 'Belt and Road' initiative, shantytowns renovation projects, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development project and international cooperation in the manufacturing sector,"

The reform plan showed earlier that when the whole process finished, the floor for the three banks' capital adequacy will be 10.5 percent, more than the 8 percent required by Basel III, a global, voluntary regulatory framework on bank capital adequacy.

Before that, there was no requirement on the policy banks' capital adequacy ratio, making it difficult to supervise credit risks.

Zhu Haibin, chief economist in China at JPMorgan Chase & Co, expected more targeted fund injections via the policy banks' tools will support the government-led infrastructure construction projects in the second half, to boost fixed-asset investment and stabilize economic growth.