, Columnist
China’s Banks Are Desperate for Capital
Lenders can’t continue this pace of loan growth without a bigger cushion. Beijing needs to make fundraising easier.
Trouble on the horizon.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
In the past decade, China has relied primarily on credit growth to fund its economic ambitions. The country’s banks are now feeling the constraints of this lending binge and need to raise a lot of capital over the next couple of years.
The way China handles this challenge will determine its economic health. With 267 trillion yuan ($39.4 trillion) of total assets, and home to the world’s four largest banks by this measure, the country’s financial system doesn’t operate in isolation. Whatever happens in China will have a global impact.