Lending is down considerably…

Loans From China’s Top Four Banks Fall 39%
Tuesday, 02 Mar 2010 02:21 PM

China’s four-biggest banks made net new loans in February of about 294 billion yuan ($43.1 billion), down about 39 percent from January, banking sources said on Tuesday.

Overall bank lending in January was 1.39 trillion yuan, with the Big Four banks extending 480 billion yuan in new loans, sources previously told Reuters.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has forecast an overall drop in February new lending to 700 billion yuan.

Sources, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, gave the following breakdown for February new lending:

• Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s biggest bank by market capital, lent 78 billion yuan.

• China Construction Bank, China’s second largest lender, lent 76 billion yuan.

• Bank of China lent 58 billion yuan.

• Agricultural Bank of China had 82 billion yuan.

ICBC and CCB declined to comment. A public relations representative at the Bank of China said she was not aware of the figure. ABC could not immediately be reached for comment.