Increase seen in 2012 social financing

Growth of both total assets and liabilities of financial institutions in China's banking sector slowed in 2012 from the previous year, the country's banking regulator said Monday, indicating that companies were less dependent on banking credit when seeking financing.

Combined assets grew by 17.7 percent year-on-year in December to 131.3 trillion yuan ($21 trillion), down from the 18.3 percent growth recorded in December 2011, according to statistics released Monday by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).

Total liabilities rose 17.5 percent year-on-year in December to 122.6 trillion yuan, down from 18 percent growth in December 2011, the statistics showed.

"Obviously, the slowdown of the economy in 2012 caused a decline in corporate financing during the year. The total assets and liabilities of these financial institutions that provide financing for companies declined accordingly," Zhao Xijun, deputy dean of the School of Finance at Renmin University of China, told the Global Times Monday.

"The decline also indicates that the structure of social financing changed in 2012 and that companies were less dependent on banking credit while seeking financing channels," Zhao said.

Total social financing - a broad measure of liquidity in the economy that includes loans in local and foreign currencies, entrusted loans, trust loans and corporate bonds - surged to 15.76 trillion yuan in 2012, but the proportion of new yuan loans fell in the year, the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said earlier this month.

The ratio of loans in yuan to total social financing was 52.1 percent in 2012, 6.1 percentage points down from 2011, while the ratio of trust loans and corporate bonds to total social financing rose to 8.2 percent and 14.3 percent, up 6.6 and 3.7 percentage points respectively from the previous year, the central bank's data showed.

Direct financing measures such as bonds and equity financing help to reduce financing costs for companies, Zhao said.

Forms of funding other than bank credit have gained in importance, Dariusz Kowalczyk, a senior economist at Hong Kong-based Crédit Agricole CIB, said in a research note, adding that significant funding will mean continued fast growth of GDP in the near term and should be positive for business.

"In 2013, monetary policy will remain prudent and banks will have adequate ability to provide credit. But to prevent excessive investment and a large rebound of property prices, banking credit will not be too loose," said E Yongjian, a researcher with the Bank of Communications in Shanghai.