The latest figures from China’s banking regulator indicate that non-performing loans saw a modest decline in the first quarter of the year.
Figures released by CBRC on 10 May indicate that the NPL balance for China’s commercial banks was 1.58 trillion yuan (USD$230 billion) as of the end of the first quarter, for a gain of 67.3 billion yuan since the start of the year.
Overall loan quality is holding steady in CBRC’s estimation, with the current NPL ratio for Chinese commercial banks at 1.74%, for a decline of 0.01 percentage points compared to the preceding quarter.
Commercial banks achieved total profits of 493.3 billion yuan in Q1 2017, for a year-on-year gain of 4.61%. Q1 average asset profit ratios and average capital profit ratios both saw modest year-on-year declines of 0.12 and 1.15 percentage points respectively, to 1.07% and 14.77%.
The liquidity ratio for commercial banks remains steady at 48.74%, as has the RMB excess reserve ratio, which dipped 0.68 percentage points compared to the previous quarter to 1.65%.
The loan deposit ratio is 67.74%, for a gain of 0.13 percentage points on Q4 2017.
