BEIJING, Jan. 18 -- The total foreign and domestic currency assets of Chinese financial institutions rose 26.3 percent year on year to 78.8 trillion yuan (11.54 trillion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2009, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said on Saturday.

The CBRC also said that combined liabilities rose 26.8 percent from the same period last year to 74.3 trillion yuan.

Assets of state-owned commercial banks were 40.1 trillion yuan by the end of 2009, up 25.9 percent year on year, while those of joint-stock commercial banks 11.8 trillion yuan, up 33.7 percent year on year.

Liabilities of state-owned commercial banks were 37.9 trillion yuan, up 26.9 percent year on year, while those of joint-stock commercial banks 11.2 trillion yuan, up 34.1 percent year on year.

The bad loan ratio among major commercial banks (state-owned commercial banks and joint-stock commercial banks) fell to 1.59 percent, down 0.86 percentage points from the beginning of 2009.