Asset quality begins to brighten

BEIJING - Chinese listed banks' nonperforming loans or NPLs in 2016 remained a concern, and they sought to tackle them through a variety of methods, according to a report of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The report analyzed the 2016 annual reports of 27 A-share and H-share listed lenders - six large commercial banks, seven joint-stock commercial banks, nine city commercial banks and five rural commercial banks.

According to the report, the NPL ratio increased to an average of 1.67 percent at the year-end, while the ratio in 2015 was 1.61 percent. NPLs 1.15 trillion yuan were up 16.8 percent year-on-year.