The big four state-owned banks have dramatically scaled back their new lending since the 11 trillion yuan splurge in the first half of the year.
The government has obviously now given the "stop" command, but it is interesting to see how quickly things have ground to a halt.
According to Caijing, the big four only handed out 110 billion yuan in new loans in September, the lowest figure so far this year (a decline from 165.8 billion in August and only one-sixth of the sum given out in May).
Since last month was the end of the third quarter, and banks tend to step up lending at the end of a quarter in order to boost their figures, the decline is particularly notable.
The big reason for the plunge was a dramatic cutback from the Bank of China, which only disbursed around 3 billion yuan.
I met with Zhang Jianguo, the president of China Construction Bank in July and he told me that the Bank of China had been the most active lender of the big four, handing out 900 billion yuan compared to 850 billion for ICBC, 800 billion for Agricultural Bank and 700 billion for CCB.
Mr Zhang also said that CCB had been among the most careful in issuing loans – "Before our peers recognised the new opportunities, we recognised that opportunities come with risk so we moved towards risk management," he said.
The implication is that some of his rivals may have been a bit more rash, and my feeling is that if Bank of China has choked off its new credit altogether, it is concerned about the loans it has already accumulated on its books.
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