【英语财经】坏账飙升令中国四大国有银行承压 China banks under growing pressure as bad loans jump

China’s banks are facing an ever tighter squeeze as profits stagnate and bad loans jump as the economy continues to slow and heavily-indebted companies struggle to survive.

The country’s big four state-controlled banks — Agricultural Bank of China, ICB, Bank of China and China Construction Bank — reported only marginal gains in net profit for the first half of the year, while official measures of non-performing loans surged.

While the central bank eased policy last week, cutting the benchmark interest rate and lowering the reserve ratio requirement for banks, analysts expect China’s lenders to remain under increasing pressure as they grapple with the most difficult market conditions they have faced in years.

“It’s definitely going to get tougher before we see any turnround,” said Patricia Cheng, head of China financial research at CLSA in Hong Kong.

“This is the usual trick of kicking the can down the road, adding new liquidity and hoping it goes to more productive businesses so companies can generate better returns and pay off debt. But for the last few years, it hasn’t come true.”

Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital, an independent research house in Hong Kong, believes the People’s Bank of China will continue to reduce the RRR — the reserves banks must keep with the central bank — in an attempt to support the banks and the real economy.

But he doubts that will be effective in tackling the main challenge of rising bad debts. “It will help banks’ profitability but it won’t help them overcome the real problem.”

After years of stellar profits racked up as growth surged, the first half of this year was difficult.

ICBC, the world’s biggest bank by assets, warned that the “risks of illegal fundraising and financial frauds are spreading to the banking system” as it reported a 28 per cent increase in non-performing loans compared with the previous six months.

Net profit in the first half rose 1 per cent year on year at Bank of China, and by less than that for ICBC, AgBank and CCB.

中国各银行正面临越来越严重的挤压。随着中国经济继续放缓，负债累累的企业竭力生存，银行利润停滞不前，坏账飙升。

中国四大国有银行——农行(AgBank)、工行(ICBC)、中行(BoC)以及建行(CCB)——报告今年上半年净利润仅略有增长，同时衡量不良贷款的官方指标飙升。

尽管中国央行上周放松货币政策，下调了基准利率和银行存款准备金率，但分析人士预测，中国各银行仍将面临与日俱增的压力，它们正面临多年来最艰难的市场状况。

香港里昂证券(CLSA)中国金融研究主管郑爱晶(Patricia Cheng)表示：“在情况出现好转之前，肯定会变得更为艰难。”

“这是常见的拖延之计，增添新的流动性，希望其流向更有效益的企业，这样企业就可以产生更高的回报并偿还债务。但这种愿望在过去几年里没有成为现实。”

香港独立研究机构Orient Capital Research董事总经理安德鲁?科利尔(Andrew Collier)认为，中国央行将继续降准，以支撑银行和实体经济。

但他怀疑这将有效解决坏账飙升这一主要挑战。“这将有助于提高银行的盈利能力，但不会帮助它们解决真正的问题。”

在多年的业务大幅增长带来亮丽利润后，今年上半年情况艰难。

全球资产规模最高的银行——工行在公布不良贷款数据时警告称：“非法融资和金融欺诈风险正向银行体系蔓延”。该行报告今年上半年不良贷款较之前六个月增加28%。

中国银行今年上半年净利润同比增长1%，工行、农行和建行的净利润增速均不及1%。

译者/梁艳裳