China Banking Regulatory Commission chairman Liu Mingkang warned lenders over the weekend to guard against the risk of a resurgence in nonperforming loans. Ten banks were named at the meeting in an effort to ensure that "their fast loans growth was justified," The Standard of Hong Kong reported. The request for lenders to be more stringent in making loans comes as a result of the limited response of the mainland stock market to the high economic growth rate. To ensure that bank lending stays in line with government directives to maintain a balanced loan mix, the industry watchdog stressed its concerns about faster-than-expected loan growth. Liu said banks, especially large state-owned banks, should not shrug off responsibility to curb overheating. Some of the banks named include China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Merchants Bank, CITIC Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Minsheng Bank, Industrial Bank, Huaxia Bank and Zheshang Bank. Liu said the move to name the banks served only as a reminder, not a warning, to senior bank officials. Beijing spent almost US$500 billion bailing out state-owned banks since 1998 after they piled up bad loans.