[ET Net News Agency, 4 January 2021] On 31 December 2020, the PBOC and CBIRC jointly
released new rules on property loan concentration requirements for China banks, effective
1 January 2021.
Key requirements include (1) shares of mortgage loans are limited to 32.5%, 20%, and
17.5% for large SOE banks, joint-stock banks, and city commercial banks, respectively; (2)
shares of all property-related loans are limited to 40%, 27.5%, and 22.5% for large SOE
banks, joint-stock banks, and city commercial banks, respectively; (3) grace periods for
compliance of 2 years and 4 years would be granted to banks, with extensions possible
after the grace period; and (4) local CBIRC and PBOC agencies have the discretion to
impose some buffer depending on local jurisdiction circumstances.
Morgan Stanley thinks Ping An Bank (Shenzhen code: 000001) and Everbright Bank (06818)
will benefit from the new caps, while CMB (03968) and Industrial Bank (Shanghai code:
601166) are negatively affected and large banks generally see less impact.
Based on 1H 2020 data, ICBC (01398), BOC (03988), ABC (01288), and BoCom (03328) should
be unaffected, while CCB (00939) and PSBC (01658) slightly exceeded limits on mortgage
loans. (KL)