The Construction Bank of China (CBC), one of China's "big four" state-owned commercial banks, posted an 11.84 percent non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at the end of October, down 4.06 percentage points from the beginning of 2003, according to bank sources.
The ratio was the lowest among the big four and lower than the 12 percent goal set for 2003.
An accumulated RMB 60.8 billion (US$7.3 billion) worth of bad assets had been disposed of by the end of October, with half recovered in cash.
The bank is considering a JV with Morgan Stanley to dispose of some RMB 4.3 billion (US$524 million) of NPLs and recover at least 30 percent of the figure's face value.
The big four – Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, CBC and Agricultural Bank of China – had around RMB 2 trillion (US$241.8 billion) of bad assets to be disposed of by the end of June 2003 and set a target of reducing their NPL ratios by three to four percentage points this year.
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