The China Banking Regulatory Commission has told banks, particularly small and medium-sized lenders, to raise their capital adequacy ratios from the official requirement of 8 per cent to 10 per cent by the end of the year, a senior CBRC official said.
“We haven't changed the law but we are encouraging the banks to increase their provisioning and have more liquidity on hand because China cannot be immune to the global crisis and we expect next year to be much more severe,” the official said.
Chinese banks are currently required to conform to a domestic standard based on the Basle I framework for global bank regulation, which recommends banks maintain capital adequacy ratios of 8 per cent.