THE overdue loans of big Chinese commercial banks are expected to rise this year, adding worries that bad loans will continue to weigh on lenders' profitability and asset quality, PricewaterhouseCoopers said today.
Combined overdue loans of the top 10 listed banks amounted to 487 billion yuan (US$78.6 billion) at the end of 2012, up 29 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, average overdue loan ratio rose to 1.21 percent from 1.06 percent, indicating potential increases in non-performing loans in the future, said PwC in an outlook report published today.
Overdue loan is a critical asset quality indicator as it will become nonperforming if the payment is past due over 90 days.
"Notwithstanding the dipping bad loan ratios at the Big Five commercial banks, overdue loan ratios increased, indicating downward risk of the lenders' asset quality. Non-performing loans may expand further in future. It's worthy of attention," PwC said in the report.
The top 10 listed banks in China are the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, Industrial Bank Corp, China Minsheng Banking Corp, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, and China CITIC Bank.