INTERNATIONAL: Major banks in China report a decline in their nonperforming loan (NPL) ratios for 2021 amid tougher financial risk mitigation and the disposal of nonperforming assets.

The country’s top six banks, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Bank of China (BOC), China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of Communications (BOCOM) and Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC), all posted a drop in their NPL ratio.

Some of them pointed out the rate for the real estate sector rose slightly due to its sluggish performances.

The Chief Risk Officer for CCB Cheng Yuanguo says given the small amount and proportion of non-performing loans in the real estate sector, it will not affect the overall asset quality of banks.

"At present, the fluctuations in the real estate industry have put certain pressure on asset quality. For CCB, the asset quality of the real estate industry remained relatively stable and controllable in 2021 for the fact that its NLP for domestic property loans was lower than the average, plus loan proportion was small," said Cheng.

Meanwhile, a number of wealth management products issued by banks fell below the net value, affected by volatilities in the capital market. Because of this, some banks said they are adjusting their portfolio structures based on the current market.

"In terms of the recent drastic drawdowns for stocks and bonds, we have also carried out targeted adjustment for our products, by increasing the proportion of low-volatility assets and investing in different industries to stabilize the net values," said Tu Hong, chief supervisor for Bank of Communications' interbank and market operations segment.

According to financial information services provider Wind, as of March 7, the net values of 900 out of 29,193 wealth management products launched by banks and their subsidies dropped below one yuan (0.16 U.S. dollars) per share.