The non-performing loan ratio at Chinese banks hit its highest level since 2010 at the end of the second quarter, China's banking regulator has said, according to a closed-door speech seen by Chinese financial magazine Caixin.
Non-performing loans rose by Rmb322bn in the first six months of 2015 to around 1.8tn reports the FT's Gabriel Wildau. This is up 35 per cent from a year earlier, Shang Fulin, head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said in the speech.
That marks an acceleration from the 22 per cent annual rise in bad loans through the end of 2014. The official system-wide non-performing loan ratio was 1.82 per cent at the end of June, up from 1.64 per cent at the end of 2014.