New, yuan-dominated loans of the four state-owned commercial banks reached 3,200 billion yuan in the first half of 2009, accounting for 43 percent of a total of 7,370 billion yuan loaned in that period. The four banks are the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank.

But analysts say the big banks are being more cautious in their loans activity, compared with small and medium-sized banks.

On July 27, the first three banks issued their loan figures for the first half of 2009: Bank of China headed the list with loans of 901.9 billion yuan. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China loaned 825.5 billion yuan, 19.3 percent up on its previous first half record. Agricultural Bank of China made new yuan-dominated loans of over 800 billion yuan. Insiders disclosed that China Construction Bank's new yuan-dominated loans were more than 700 billion yuan.

Regarding the second half of 2009, Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China said that they intended to step up loan development. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China said it would strike a balance between using loans to boost of economy and managing risk.

For more information, please consult the Chinese coverage here:

http://www.nbd.com.cn/newshtml/20090728/20090728095512898.html

(China.org.cn by Li Xiaohua, July 28, 2009)