WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — China’s biggest commercial banks have been removing nonperforming loans from their balance sheets, with a focus on asset-quality deterioration, the International Monetary Fund’s deputy director of capital markets, Peter Dattels, told a news conference on Wednesday.
"The Big Four Chinese banks have seen increasing nonperforming-loan ratios as their asset quality starts to deteriorate," Dattels said. "They have been quite active in removing some of those assets from their banks, which I think is a helpful initiative."
The Big Four is composed of the Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Agricultural Bank of China.
Officials in China are working to make the country’s economy more resilient, but further reforms are needed, according to Dattels.
"The Chinese financial system is growing more complex and more vulnerable," he stated.
On Tuesday, IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld said the Fund has concerns about China’s medium-term economic prospects because stimulus policies pushed by Beijing, such as rapid domestic credit growth and continuing support of sectors with excess capacity, could backfire.
