THE top 10 listed Chinese commercial banks expect to see their overdue loans rise this year, raising worries over their profitability and asset quality, PricewaterhouseCoopers said yesterday.

The combined overdue loans at the banks - the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, the Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, the Industrial Bank, China Minsheng Banking Corp, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and China CITIC Bank - rose 29 percent from a year earlier to 487 billion yuan (US$78.6 billion) at the end of 2012.

Meanwhile the average overdue loan ratio climbed to 1.21 percent from 1.06 percent, indicating the possibility of a further increase in non-performing loans in the future, said PwC in an outlook report published yesterday.

Overdue loans are a critical indicator of asset quality and they become non-performing if the payment due exceeds 90 days.

"Notwithstanding the falling bad loan ratios at the big five commercial banks, the overdue loan ratios increased, indicating downward risks of the lenders' asset quality. The non-performing loans may rise further in future. It's worthy of attention," PwC said in the report.

The report also noted the rapid rise in the wealth management business. Last year, 31,673 wealth management products worth 7.6 trillion yuan were issued by the banks, up 68 percent from 2011.