Finance Association, November 22 (Reporter Shi Sitong) On November 22, China Construction Bank continued to issue a number of non-performing loan transfer project announcements at the Yindeng Center. A Financial Services Association reporter combed through and found that recently, CCB's disposal of non-performing assets has been further accelerated, and 21 pieces of relevant project transfer information have been released one after another within three days, involving a total of about 1.61 billion yuan in outstanding principal and interest.

According to industry insiders, due to factors such as economic recovery falling short of expectations, the quality of retail assets in the banking sector is generally under pressure and has become an overall trend in the market. With the recent succession of macro-control policies, the external environment faced by banks will gradually improve. In the face of current retail-side risk exposure pressure, the industry will continue to maintain a high level of disposal of non-performing assets in the future.

Accelerate disclosure of non-performing loan transfer information. Personal non-performing loans are the focus of transfers

A Financial Services Association reporter combed through the Yindeng Center's Non-Performing Loan Transfer Section and found that since November, China Construction Bank has successively issued 29 non-performing loan transfer notices, involving a total of 2.211 billion yuan in outstanding principal and interest. Recently, however, the speed of disclosure of transfers has accelerated markedly. Within three days, 21 pieces of relevant project transfer information were released, and the total outstanding principal and interest amounts to about 1.61 billion yuan.

It is worth mentioning that judging from the types of non-performing loans, most of the non-performing loan transfer projects disclosed by CCB are personal operating non-performing loans. Specifically, only 3 of the transfer projects disclosed so far in November are non-performing loan projects to the public, involving outstanding principal and interest of about 0.345 billion yuan. The remaining 26 are all personal non-performing loans such as personal consumption and operating loans.

“This move is conducive to consolidating CCB's sound operating foundation, improving risk resilience, and meets the regulatory authorities' requirements for banking financial institutions to strengthen risk management.” Zheng Jiawei, chief fixed income analyst at Yongxing Securities, told the Financial Association reporter that since 2024, CCB's retail non-performing loans have been generated and the pressure on asset quality has increased. The bank's intensive transfer of non-performing assets indicates that it is actively coping with the current situation where asset quality on the retail side is under pressure and speeding up the disposal of non-performing assets through market-based means to ease the pressure on asset quality.

Judging from the three-quarter report, CCB did not disclose the situation related to poor personal loans in the first three quarters. Overall, as of the end of September this year, the bank's non-performing loan balance was 346.906 billion yuan, an increase of 21.65 billion yuan over the end of the previous year; the non-performing loan ratio was 1.35%, a decrease of 0.02 percentage points.

However, judging from the previous interim report, behind the improvement in the overall non-performing rate, CCB's non-performing personal loans and advances rate in the first half of the year was 0.84%, up 0.18 percentage points from the end of the previous year. Among them, the non-performing rate for personal business loans rose 0.62 percentage points to 1.57%.

At the previous three-quarter results meeting, the relevant person in charge of CCB's information management department said that CCB's personal consumer loan non-performing rate has remained stable overall. Although it has slightly increased from the beginning of the year, it is still at a relatively good level, and the CCB credit card non-performing rate has also remained at a good level in the industry. In the future, the bank will continue to improve the quality and efficiency of loan investment in key areas, and at the same time do a good job of risk assessment, proactively respond to new situations and challenges, and ensure that asset quality continues to be stable.

Risk exposure pressure on the retail side of banks is increasing, and the external environment may gradually improve in the future

At the same time, China Construction Bank's efforts to dispose of non-performing assets are also increasing. According to the semi-annual report data, for the six months ended June 30, the bank's principal amount of non-performing loans transferred in bulk to external asset management companies was 6.845 billion yuan, an increase of 5.174 billion yuan over the same period last year.

After that, in the second half of the year, China Construction Bank also continued to dispose of non-performing assets. Previously, in September, the bank successively published 35 pieces of non-performing loan transfer information at the Yindeng Center within a week. The total amount of outstanding principal and interest reached 2.818 billion yuan. The project type was also mainly personal consumption or business non-performing loans.

“Factors such as the recent decline in social finance growth and the gradual withdrawal of early small and micro support policies may have an impact on the quality of banks' retail assets. These external factors have increased the pressure on banks' retail side risk exposure, leading to an increase in retail defect rates.” Cheng Ka-wai said.

In fact, during recent intensive performance conferences, quite a few bank executives talked about the quality of assets on the retail side. As Guo Dai, general manager of the credit management department of Minsheng Bank, put it bluntly, there is an overall upward trend in credit risk that can be compared to those in the same industry as small, micro, and retail credit this year. Meanwhile, Tang Shuhui, deputy general manager of China CITIC Bank's risk management department, also said that due to economic recovery falling short of expectations, the quality of retail assets in the banking sector is generally under pressure, which is an overall market trend.

Looking ahead, however, the industry generally believes that the external environment is gradually improving. “Currently, macro-control policies have been issued one after another, providing strong support for stabilizing the economy and reducing risks.” Tang Shuhui said. At the same time, Guo Dai also said that looking at the external environment, with a package of incremental policies introduced one after another since September, economic recovery is expected to accelerate and will gradually be transmitted to the income of physical enterprises and residents, and the external environment faced by banks will gradually improve.

According to industry insiders, actively resolving and disposing of non-performing assets is beneficial to consolidating the solid operating foundation of banks. Currently, the overall risk pressure on the retail side of the industry is relatively high. Various institutions are actively dealing with it through various methods, and the industry will continue to maintain a high level of disposal of non-performing assets in the future.

At the same time, Cheng Ka-wai also further pointed out that with the increase in the non-performing rate of individual loans, commercial banks have strong demand for diversified disposal methods for non-performing assets. Transferring non-performing assets in batches can improve commercial banks' disposal efficiency and market liquidity, help banks quickly recover funds and reduce the non-performing rate. At the same time, the supervisory authorities are also encouraging banking financial institutions to broaden the channels for disposal of non-performing assets and innovate ways to dispose of bad assets.