The move by Fitch Ratings comes a week after it cut its projection for the country’s sovereign credit rating, reflecting pessimism in the world’s second largest economy and concerns over Beijing’s capacity to support its biggest lenders.

China’s banks are removing some of their long-term fixed-income products and cutting rates offered to depositors in an effort to shore up profitability, as challenges including a slumping property sector, mounting local government debt, and slow consumption recovery weigh on bank earnings.

China’s finance sector was once freewheeling, but new regulations and mandates from officials suggest banks’ new role looks beyond simple profit-seeking.

Bocom paints resilient picture for year ahead despite posting slower profit growth and warning about challenges from property sector.

The bank will be the nation’s first big state bank to sell loss-absorbing bonds to plug a major funding shortfall before a 2025 deadline to meet global capital requirements

China’s largest state-owned banks are lowering their deposit rates for the third time in 2023, in their latest effort to ease the pressure on their net interest margins and to improve profitability.

Banks will cut rates on 16 trillion yuan (US$2.2 trillion) of existing first-home loans, helping households save up to 109 billion yuan in interest, ANZ says. The cut will have a tangible impact on profit margins.

A mortgage rate cut by Bank of Communications, China’s fifth-biggest lender, could induce larger rivals to follow, days after Beijing eased mortgage rules to help arrest a months-long slump in home sales.

‘The situation of controlling the risks from the property sector remains serious,’ a Bank of Communications spokesperson says.

Chinese tech giants are the main attraction at the three-day World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, as US firms maintain their distance.

The HK$680 million (US$86.72 million) flat in Opus Hong Kong in eastern Mid-Levels has been put up for sale by tender by the receivers, according to a statement by Savills, which said it had been appointed the sole agent for the deal.

Chinese tycoon Chen Hongtian is in discussions with lenders to retrieve assets worth HK$10 billion (US$1.27 billion) after a ‘short-term liquidity issue’ forced him to miss mortgage payments.

Chinese lenders largely shrugged off the recent banking crisis in developed markets, gaining in value to take the top five spots in a league table of Asia-Pacific banks ranked by market capitalisation.

Major banks have reported declining net interest margins, a crucial measure of their profitability, while the struggling property market portends slower growth, if not an outright contraction, in new mortgage applications.

Chen Hongtian’s company, Cheung Kei Group, cites defaults on ‘several big-ticket accounts receivable’ and ‘abnormal obstacles’ for loss of control over assets including house on The Peak.

Chen was the talk of the town in Hong Kong for purchasing the house on The Peak for a record price of HK$2.1 billion in 2016.

The share prices of Chinese securities firms have slumped ahead of their earnings announcements for 2022 amid expectations of record losses.

After the PBOC and the CBIRC officially confirmed a 16-point rescue plan for the real estate sector on Wednesday, banks have been rushing to offer financing support for several struggling companies.

ICBC, the world’s largest bank by assets, sees more challenges ahead in staving off the impact of China’s strict zero-Covid measures on its loan quality.

Two Chinese state-owned banks said this week that their first-half earnings were largely unhurt by the country’s Covid-19 lockdown measures, but more challenges are in store.

Dividend payments by onshore Chinese companies likely to exceed 1 trillion yuan for financial year 2021 for the first time, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Leading state-controlled banks are likely to report earnings growth of between 8 and 15 per cent for 2021, according to analysts’ estimates.

Twelve Hong Kong banks, including note-issuing lenders HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong), will suspend all banking services on Saturdays starting this week and the next until further notice.

Chinese banks exited the third quarter with marginal improvement in bad loan ratios. Lending to developers may still become troublesome as Evergrande and distressed peers struggle to repay.

Postal Savings Bank of China reported the highest first-half profit among lenders that published results on Friday. Bocom president optimistic about full-year outlook.

Contingency planning has been a requirement for China’s biggest financial institutions for a decade now.

China’s US$13.6 billion National Green Development Fund takes a step closer towards deploying capital to fund climate-friendly projects.

Analysts say a strong rebound in banks’ performance in fourth quarter probably help Chinese banks avert full-year earning drops.

Chinese banks reported green shoots of retail loans business recovery, as credit card borrowers’ repayment ability improved amid rebounding economy.