China Construction Bank (CCB) said yesterday it disposed of 37.7 billion yuan (US$4.6 billion) of bad assets during the January-July period, and recovered assets worth 23.3 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion), of which 20.5 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion) was cash.

By the end of July, the bank's non-performing loans, measured by the international standard of five-category classification, stood at 12.23 per cent, dropping from the 15.36 per cent at the end of last year.

Yang Xiaoyang, head of the bank's Asset Preservation Department, said his bank has always given key attention on improving the asset quality and business efficiency, and dropping the amount of non-performing assets.

The bank plans to dispose of up to 55 billion yuan (US$6.6 billion) of bad assets this year and reduce the non-performing loans (NPLs) by 4 percentage points, Yang said.

"We have to speed up disposing of the non-performing assets, because we want to become the first State-owned commercial bank to be listed on domestic stock exchanges," he said.

Bank President Zhang Enzhao said the bank aims to drop the NPL ratio to less than 10 per cent within two years.

"To achieve this goal, we will have to explore new ways to dispose of the bad assets," Yang said.

The bank is trying to develop an information management system to conduct an online auction of mortgaged assets, he said.

Last month, the bank signed an agreement with US investment bank Morgan Stanley to jointly dispose of 4.3 billion yuan (US$518 million) worth of non-performing assets.

But the project has yet to be approved by relative government departments including the central People's Bank of China, the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Finance, Yang said.

"The deal, if approved, would help us move faster in disposing of the non-performing loans," he said.

Close

Today's Top News		Top Business News
+The next great leap after Shenzhou V ( 2003-10-21) +Hu calls for balanced development ( 2003-10-21) +Report: SARS not airborne virus ( 2003-10-21) +Japan urged to resolve weapons issue ( 2003-10-21) +Int'l AIDS group opens Beijing office ( 2003-10-21)		+Home-appliance giants want wheels ( 2003-10-21) +Exchange-rate reform under study ( 2003-10-21) +Health insurance sector called for ( 2003-10-21) +SanDisk teams up to open outlets ( 2003-10-21) +Housing prices start to sag in Shanghai ( 2003-10-21)