Bank of China, China Construction Bank and other Chinese lenders
have adopted new accounting rules that change the way they set
aside money to cover potential bad loans, increasing the profit on
their books.
Lenders must set aside at least 1 percent of their risk-weighted
assets — instead of total loans as previously required — as
"general purpose provisions" against possible loan losses, under
the rules published by the Ministry of Finance. The provisions are
now considered part of shareholders' interests. Previously, they
were deducted from bank' net income.
"By counting provisions as net income, it will make lenders'
books look better," said Liang Jing, a Shanghai-based banking
analyst at Guotai Junan Securities.
The government has urged the nation's lenders to clean up their
books and set aside adequate funds to cover potential losses. China
will fully open its banking sector to Citigroup, HSBC Holdings and
other overseas lenders by the end of next year.
The rule change would boost the profit of China Merchants Bank,
the nation's biggest publicly traded lender, by 18 percent this
year, according to a research report by Guotai Junan
Securities.
Shenzhen Development Bank, which is controlled by San
Francisco-based buyout firm Newbridge Capital, would see its net
income increase by 36 percent after it adopted the new accounting
method, while profit at Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, the
partner of Citigroup, would rise 14.6 percent, the report said.
Counting loan provisions as part of shareholders' interests
would also increase banks' net assets and raise their core capital
adequacy ratios, Guotai Junan's report said.
"The move will make banks less reluctant to set aside
provisions, because it won't dampen their profit," said Qiu
Zhicheng, a Shanghai-based banking analyst at Xiangcai
Securities.
Banks must also set aside provisions for loans that have already
been classified as nonperforming, according to the new rules.
(Shenzhen Daily July 4, 2005)
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