China

Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets are the target markets.

Lenders have been turning to negotiable certificates of deposit to offset interbank borrowing.

Lenders may soon shun less stable short-term funding sources amidst clearer guidelines.

Three of the country’s Big 4 lenders are already live on the payments initiative.

The government-encouraged pivot comes at a risk of low returns for the lenders.

Bank of Communications is investing $1.25b for such unit in Shanghai.

The bank will leverage the firm’s tech expertise in AI, supply chain finance and biometric identification.

Some trust companies halted their channel business amidst intensified scrutiny.

Lenders handled a whopping $11.1t in mobile payments in the first quarter alone.

Issuance of structured deposits surged almost 47% to $1.4t in the year through March.

Shadow banking growth virtually stopped new contributions to total social financing.

Moody’s notes that there are limits to how much banks can substitute for lower shadow credit levels.

NPLs for the ‘Big Five’ largely fell whilst those for smaller rural commercial banks rose to 3%. As the country’s largest lenders enjoy enhanced profitability from lower bad loan levels brought about by a macro-economic recovery, smaller lenders have not emerged unscathed as they bear the brunt of defaults and rising interest rates.

The weighted average NPL ratio dropped from 1.65% in 2016 to 1.55% in 2017.

It targets growing its stake to a majority interest.

Operating income from the retail arm accounted for 37.56% of total bank income in 2017.