Demand for noncredit assets not dwindling

The nation did not see a steep fall in investing for nonstandard credit assets, which account for about 15 percent of wealth management products offered by commercial banks, according to a report by Securities Times on Thursday, citing an official at the People's Bank of China, the central bank.

According to the report, Tao Ling, deputy head of the financial stability bureau at PBOC, said the new rules for China's asset management sector were never meant to clamp down on shadow banking or forbid investing in nonstandard credit assets. The shrinking trend in shadow lending is due to a drop in "channel services" for other institutions to bypass regulations and the multitier nesting of asset management products under the rules.

As for the bigger picture, Tao admitted the country's economic downturn and sluggish demand in the real economy could be attributed to contractions in shadow banking.