Banks accused of weak lending

Ill-disciplined property lending has been blamed by regulators for increasing the risk of bad loans, Bloomberg reported. A China Banking Regulatory Commission report accused lenders of poor risk-consciousness and giving loans to companies that have insufficient capital. The commission cited numerous cases of lax lending uncovered in a recent inspection of real estate loans. These included Bank of China lending US$6.2 million to Jiangsu Zhongzhu Real Estate in 2004, whose debt-to-asset ratio was 92%. China’s property market has been in decline since June following a crackdown on speculators.