Web Exclusive

China banks' capital adequacy ratio falls in Q1

By Ben Yue (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-05-16 14:44

The average capital adequacy ratio of China's banking system fell to 11.8 percent by the end of March, down 0.4 percentage point from the last quarter of 2010, the China Securities Journal reported, citing statistics from the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).

Related readings:  Police question dismissed employee over bank blaze  Bank reserve requirement raised for 5th time  Bank of China OKed for 32b yuan of subordinate debt  China's April new bank lending at 740b yuan

The core capital adequacy ratio of Chinese banks dropped to 9.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, down 0.3 percentage point quarter-on-quarter.

The CBRC released the data on Sunday, reporting that the net profit of China's commercial banks in the first quarter reached 263.5 billion yuan ($40.5 billion).

China's commercial banks saw their non-performing loans decrease by 300 million yuan from the end of 2010 to 433.3 billion yuan at the end of March, while their bad-debt ratio kept the same level of 1.1% as the end of last year, the CBRC said.

Liu Mingkang, chairman of the CBRC, said earlier that a bad-debt ratio of 2 percent was bearable and reasonable for fast-growing economies like China.