China's new credit dropped in February

China’s broadest measure of new credit dropped in February from a record high a month earlier mainly because of intensified regulation over shadow banking and bond-market instability, Caixin reports. Total social financing (TSF), which includes conventional bank lending and other forms of financing such as bond and equity issuance, trust loans and entrusted loans, dropped to 1.15 trillion yuan ($166.3 billion) in February from a record 3.74 trillion yuan in January, according to data released Thursday by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). One of the main factors of the decline was the dramatic drop in shadow-banking financing. In February, net capital raised through these channels, including trust loans, entrusted loans and undiscounted bankers acceptances, was 51.6 billion yuan, according to central bank data. In January, shadow-banking fundraising was 1.2 trillion yuan. The drop in shadow-banking financing was mainly due to the stepped-up efforts by regulators to control the general credit risk exposures off-balance-sheet assets.