By Ding Qi (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-08-13 14:25

Apart from strict supervision over capital flow, banking regulators haven't adopted any new policies to cancel the property mortgage loans or raise down payment ratio. An official with the China Bank Regulatory Commission (CBRC) refuted the latest rumors in an interview with the China Securities Journal on Sunday.

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Huang Yi, chief of the policy and regulation department of the CBRC, said that since the third quarter of last year, the regulator has issued a series of circulars requiring commercial banks to improve property-related credit management, especially to ensure a sober and stable development of the second-hand housing loan market. It also asked banks to determine the down payment ratio of property loans based on borrowers' solvency capability.

Although banks are required to consolidate their internal monitoring system to keep away from loan frauds and other falsifications, mortgage loans with legitimate purposes will not be suspended, according to Huang.

His words are echoed by other industry practitioners. According to a manager with the Beijing customer service center of China Construction Bank, their policies on mortgages remained unchanged so far. Some property agents also said that their recent agency business on second-hand property loans had all been approved.

"Some banks may impose restrictions on housing mortgages simply to limit excessive release of loans in the first half of the year," said a man with the finance institutions department of the Bank of China.