International ratings agency Standard & Poor's has welcomed attempts by China's banks to address problem assets, South China Morning Post said. The agency gave its approval after both the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China said that they had increased write-offs on non-performing loans, made additional loan loss provisions and reversed interest income previously recognised on bad loans, in line with policies promulgated by the People's Bank of China.
The bad loan ratio of financial institutions had fallen by 2.26 percentage points so far this year, according to central bank figures.