China Construction Bank loan ratio to remain stable

A China Construction Bank Corp senior executive estimated that the bank's ratio of overdue loans to total loans will remain relatively stable but increase slightly for the full year 2020 because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"We are confident that we will not see a sharp rise in nonperforming loans," said Jin Yanmin, chief risk officer at China Construction Bank, the second largest State-owned commercial lender by assets in China.

He told a news conference on Monday that the Chinese economy enjoys resilience and flexibility, and furthermore, the bank has a solid client base, a reasonably adjusted credit structure, and a sound, comprehensive, proactive and smart risk management system.

"Pressure tests show that the impact of the first round of the domestic novel coronavirus outbreak on our asset quality is generally controllable. How big the impact of the second round of imported cases of the disease is still needs to be observed," he said.

Apart from the development of the epidemic, fiscal and monetary policies of various countries, as well as their policies to help corporate clients overcome financial stress, also will hugely affect the bank's asset quality, he said.

CCB achieved sound growth in assets and liabilities last year as its asset quality continued to improve steadily and its profitability remained stable.

The bank adjusted credit structure, improved the level of refined process management and consolidated risk basis. As a result, the asset quality remained solid with steady improvement, according to its announcement of annual results in 2019.

At the end of last year, its nonperforming loan ratio stood at 1.42 percent, down by 0.04 percentage point from 2018. The ratio of allowances for impairment losses on loans to NPLs was 227.69 percent, an increase of 19.32 percentage points.

CCB recorded a net profit attributable to equity holders of the bank of 266.73 billion yuan ($37.6 billion) in 2019, up 4.74 percent year-on-year.

It continued to optimize its credit structure to support the real economy. The balance of loans to infrastructure sectors reached 3.68 trillion yuan at the end of 2019, up 6.49 percent from the prior year-end. Over the same period, the balance of loans to strategic emerging industries increased by 38.38 percent to 533.55 billion yuan.

"We will see huge changes in the sectoral distribution of our loans this year due to the sudden and unexpected outbreak of novel coronavirus," said Zhang Gengsheng, the bank's executive vice-president.

The bank will issue loans to the healthcare industry and new infrastructure projects, such as 5G networks and data centers, in addition to conventional infrastructure.

It will be particularly prudent about offering loans to export processing enterprises, which may be seriously affected if the epidemic is not well contained overseas, Zhang said.

"We will adjust our credit measures in a timely manner based on changes in the market," he said.

The bank's net interest margin dropped by 5 basis points year-on-year to 2.26 percent in 2019 and may continue to fall about 10 basis points this year, as deposit costs rise for banks amid lending rate cuts, said Xu Yiming, chief financial officer of CCB.

"To keep our net interest margin at a sound level, we will improve risk-based pricing, further adjust the structure of loans, and ensure that demand deposits, deposits of money that can be withdrawn without prior notice, account for a large portion of our total deposits," Xu said.