China's best bank is shadow lending 'mirage'

The best-performing bank in China is in Tangshan in the northeast, a city blighted by trouble in the steel sector. Yet according to Bloomberg, the Bank of Tangshan reports the fastest growth of 156 Chinese financial institutions and the lowest level of bad loans, a mere 0.06%. Its profit jumped 436% in two years and assets soared almost 400% since the start of 2014 to $26.7 billion. It’s largely driven by shadow lending. The bank is the most prominent example of the off-loan-book wizardry that’s turbo-charging some of China’s small and mid-sized banks, creating opaque risks that could lead to failures, bailouts or liquidity shocks that jolt the nation and global markets in the years ahead. “It’s a mirage built upon risks,” said He Xuanlai, of Commerzbank AG.