Loans from China's Big 4 hit $50.8M in January

China's "Big 4" banks extended about US$50.8 million of new loans in January, reports China Securities Journal.

According to the report, total new loan growth by the domestic banking industry is thus likely to hit 800 billion yuan in January.

New loan growth by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, China's top four banks, totaled US$7.9 billion in the first three business days of the year, added the report.

According to an insider from the finance department of a private company, it obtained a 10 million yuan loan it applied for at the end of last year, and the interest rate charged was 15 percent above the benchmark rate.

In addition, the relatively loose liquidity in the market resulted in a drop in the interest rates of personal loans. For instance, the big four recently reverted to charging first-time home buyers the benchmark lending rate for mortgage loans.

An insider at the credit department of a major bank said new loan growth in January 2012 will definitely be lower than the amount lent in January in the past two years, when the amount of new loans topped one trillion yuan in each year.

According to an industry insider, The Peoples’ Bank of China may use reverse reverse repo operations to boost liquidity instead of cutting reserve requirement ratios as it is worried the latter may stimulate higher bank lending.

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