It is unfashionable these days to take the side of banks, especially institutions that are mollycoddled by the state. China’s government-owned banking behemoths are among the most unlikely candidates for compassion. But they deserve more than a little sympathy after the cash crunch of the past three weeks.
When the rate at which China’s banks lend to each other rose to more than 20 per cent and the credit market momentarily froze, commentators drew parallels with the subprime crisis and the way US banks had heaped on debt in a reckless quest for profit. Chinese banks have, after all, also been ratcheting up leverage levels by shifting loans off their balance sheets.
But in China, there is a good case to be made that banks were victims, not perpetrators, of the cash squeeze. Blindsided by a poorly communicated shift in policy, they now face a more uncertain future after Beijing tore up the road map that most had been faithfully following.
