China's banking institutions see surge in assets

Assets of China's banking institutions surged 9.9 percent year-on-year to reach 417.3 trillion yuan ($58.03 trillion) at the end of last year, the National Financial Regulatory Administration said on Wednesday.

Their outstanding loans to small and micro-sized businesses stood at 70.9 trillion yuan as of the end of last year, among which 29.1 trillion yuan were for small businesses that were issued less than 10 million yuan of credit each, growing 23.3 percent yearly.

Net profits of commercial banks over the year reached 2.4 trillion yuan, up 3.2 percent year-on-year, which was down 2.2 percentage points from a year ago. 

Their average capital return rate was 8.93 percent, and average returns on assets were 0.7 percent.

The two figures dropped 0.52 percentage points and 0.04 percentage points from that in the third quarter.

The net interest margin of commercial banks was 1.69 percent as of the end of last year. The net interest margin at the end of first, second and third quarters was respectively 1.74 percent, 1.74 percent and 1.73 percent.

Data from the NFRA also showed that in 2023, original premium incomes of the insurance sector totaled 5.1 trillion yuan, growing 9.1 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, claims and benefit payments amounted to 1.9 trillion yuan, surging 21.9 percent on a yearly basis.

Additionally, there were 75.4 billion new insurance policies, registering a remarkable 36.1 percent year-on-year growth.

liuzhihua@chinadaily.com.cn