Non-performing loans are next on the agenda for mainland's biggest commercial lender following initial bailout of US$15b
The US$15 billion injection into Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is only the first stage of a broader plan to recapitalise and restructure the mainland's largest commercial lender, senior officials said yesterday.
The bailout will be followed by further state-funded efforts to rid the bank of its non-performing loans (NPLs), which constituted 19 per cent of its lending portfolio at the end of last year, to prepare it for an international stock-market listing as soon as next year.
'There will be additional resources involved,' a senior mainland official said. 'Plans have been laid out to remove NPLs.'
An industry source said the government was considering a scheme that would transfer or auction many of the bank's problem loans to the country's official asset management companies.
'ICBC's overall target ... is to complete the restructuring into a shareholding bank within this year and then pursue domestic and international listings at an appropriate time,' ICBC said in a statement yesterday.