PBOC denies report about real estate developer bailout

China's central bank denied Tuesday media reports that the bank is holding talks with a domestic real estate developer over whether to bail out the defaulting company.

The central bank's announcement came after the Financial Times reported Tuesday that the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, and China Construction Bank (CCB), the main lender to the developer, are holding urgent talks over whether to help provincial developer Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate repay 3.5 billion yuan ($566 million) in debt.

The reports by some foreign media on the talks are untrue, said the central bank in a statement published on its official Sina Weibo late Tuesday.

The central bank did not attend the "urgent talks," nor did it participate in a meeting to dispose the financial risks of Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate, and strongly condemns the untrue reports, the statement said.

According to the Financial Times' report, Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate had been offering usurious interest rates to individuals after being shut out by conventional banks.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg also reported Tuesday that officials from the central bank and China Banking Regulatory Commission's (CBRC's) branches in Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang Province, where the developer is based, met Tuesday to discuss ways including a bailout of the real estate developer by the local government, citing unnamed officials familiar with the matter.

The CBRC, Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate and CCB could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.