Banks report fewer bad loans as curbs are introduced

The China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said that mainland commercial banks’ collective non-performing loan ratio has fallen to 6.1%, state media reported. China’s main commercial banks had a total of US$173 million in bad loans at the end of June, down from US$284 million at the end of March. The government has begun to increase risk controls to fight overheating and rising prices, though CBRC chief Liu Mingkang encouraged banks to lend to small and rural enterprises in this "difficult time." Chinese lenders’ bad-loan ratio stood at 6.3% at the end of March.