Overdue loans pile pressure on lenders

Chinese banks' asset quality came under increased pressure in the first half as overdue loans rapidly piled up, according to a report released on Thursday by PricewaterhouseCoopers International Ltd.

China's top 10 lenders' outstanding overdue loans, an indicator of future non-performing loans, or NPLs, reached 489 billion yuan ($77.6 billion) by the end of June, up 112.9 billion yuan from six months earlier, it said.

"That's much higher than our previous expectation, signaling considerable pressure on banks' asset quality," said Richard Zhu, a financial services partner at PwC.