China's Major Banks Deny Suspension of Real Estate Loans

BEIJING, Nov. 16 -- China's top four banks on Monday rejected reports that they would stop lending to real estate developers for the remainder of the year.

The press offices of the four state-owned banks, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, and the Agricultural Bank of China, all denied the reports during telephone calls made by Xinhua Monday.

A report Sunday by China Real Estate Business, a Beijing-based weekly, said the four banks had suspended credit to developers as of the end of October.

However, sources with the four banks said they have not suspended credit to developers and that loans are being provided at a normal pace.

Meanwhile, officials with the Agricultural Bank of China and China Construction Bank also said they would approve loan applications by developers before the year ends, if the projects were of high quality. They did not provide further details.

Figures released by the nation's statistics bureau showed property development investment during the first ten months this year reached 3.81 trillion yuan (574 billion U.S. dollars), up 36.5 percent year on year.

The nation targeted limiting new yuan-denominated loans for this year to 7.5 trillion yuan, after last year' s lending spree. Combined new loans for the first ten months of this year have reached 6.89 trillion yuan, government data showed.