China has not yet worked out the special strategies pertaining to the reforms
of its two other major commercial banks, according to a senior central bank
official here Monday.
Guo Shuqing, vice-governor of China's central bank and director of the State
Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), said that the Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the China Agricultural Bank, are in the
process of formulating their reform strategies, which have yet to be determined
by the central government.
The country's four biggest State-owned commercial banks, namely,the
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Bank of China, the CCB, and
the China Agricultural Bank, have a combined non-performing loans (NPL) of 1.9
trillion yuan (approximately 230billion US dollars) by January this year.
The four banks account for about 75 percent of the loans and capital offered
or owned by the country's banking institutions.
"Whether China will inject capital into the ICBC and the China Agricultural
Bank from the country's foreign exchange reserve depends on their concrete
conditions."
The Chinese government injected 45 billion US dollars late lastyear from its
foreign exchange reserve into the Bank of China and the China Construction Bank
to boost their balance sheets in preparation for stock market listing. They were
ordered to clean up their tattered loan books and improve lending practices so
thatthey would be turned into internationally competitive banking firms.
The Bank of China and the CCB were selected for introducing stock-holding
system on a trial basis since their ratio of non-performing loans to total
assets was relatively lower, Guo acknowledged, and they enjoyed better liquidity
and quality in assets than the ICBC and the China Agricultural Bank.
The wholly State-owned commercial banks constitute a major partof China's
financial sector, and it is a right direction for thosebanks to introduce a
stock-holding system, he said.
He cited the transformation of corporate governance as crucial to the
endeavor to turn State-owned commercial banks into competitive and modern
commercial banks, whereas the infusion of capital by the central government
represents only one of less important factors.
Capital infusion helps the two commercial banks dispose of non-performing
assets, and the introduction of auditing from outside the banks and strategic
foreign investors constitute the essentialmoves to set up a regular corporate
governance system, noted the vice-governor.
"Without the introduction of a corporate governance system," headded,
"injecting capital into (the banks) itself would be meaningless."
During in his annual state-of-the-nation address to China's national
legislature, Premier Wen Jiabao said China needs to "accelerate the reform of
the wholly state-owned commercial banks".