Assets at China's leasing companies totaled 44.2 billion yuan (US$5.8 billion) at the end of 2006, the banking regulator said today.

Twelve financial leasing companies held 14.2 billion yuan of assets, Cai Esheng, vice chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said in a statement posted on the agency's Web site today. Assets at more than 70 foreign and joint-venture leasing firms operating in China totaled 30 billion yuan at the year-end, the statement said.

China's cabinet has so far approved five commercial banks to enter financial leasing, Cai said without naming the banks. The industry's operations were valued at about US$4.25 billion at the end of 2005, according to him.

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Overseas leasing companies in China remain bigger than domestic rivals even as the government tries to nurture local firms as the industry opens further to foreign investment. China pledged to open its financial leasing market to overseas banks under commitments made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

China's banking watchdog lowered the capital requirement for financial leasing companies on February 1, in a move to encourage banks and other financial institutions to expand into the business. Under February's amended rules, only commercial banks, leasing companies, large enterprises whose businesses are suited to leasing and other financial institutions approved by China's banking watchdog are allowed to be principal investors in leasing firms.

"China's leasing industry is very much out of sync with the country's brisk pace of economic growth," Cai said in today's statement.

The ratio of China's leasing market to its gross domestic product reached only 0.16 percent at the end of 2005, lagging far behind that in more developed economies, he said.

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