China’s banks look to unload more than US$8.2b in bad credit-card loans
The pace of disposal efforts has accelerated since July, coinciding with the country’s slowing economy
China’s commercial banks have stepped up efforts to dispose of non-performing credit-card loans, putting billions of yuan in troubled consumer debt up for sale as lenders seek to clean up balance sheets amid rising bad loans and shrinking interest margins.
About 130 notices seeking buyers for bulk transfers of non-performing credit-card loans have been disclosed on the Banking Credit Asset Registration and Circulation Centre so far this year, involving more than 55 billion yuan (US$8.2 billion).
The rise in transfers comes as lenders face mounting asset-quality and profitability pressures as the world’s second-largest economy slows. National gross domestic product growth dropped to 4.3 per cent in the second quarter from 5 per cent in the first quarter.
The pace of disposals has accelerated since July. Major lenders announced 20 credit-card non-performing loan disposal projects between July 2 and Wednesday, involving total claims of about 20.9 billion yuan. Banks involved included China Everbright Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Ping An Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of China.
China Everbright Bank accounted for the largest transaction during the period, listing 10.82 billion yuan of non-performing credit-card assets on July 14. The portfolio contained 443,019 loans that had already been written off, comprising 9.13 billion yuan of outstanding principal and 1.68 billion yuan of unpaid interest and fees.
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, or SPDB, was another major seller. Two portfolios recently put up for transfer involved about 255,000 claims that had not entered litigation, with combined outstanding principal, interest and fees of about 7.2 billion yuan.