Financial risks in banking, insurance sectors constrained

China has seen a drop of the leverage ratio in the financial sector by 2020, with a contraction of the off-balance sheet business in commercial banks, according to the nation's top banking and insurance regulatory body on Tuesday.

A bank staff counts Chinese currency renminbi banknotes at a bank in Linyi, East China's Shandong province. [Photo/Xinhua]

The trend of a "blind expansion" of financial assets has been reversed, indicated by the slower growth of assets in banks and insurance companies from 2017 to 2020, said Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission at a news conference.

China's commercial banks' assets increased at an average rate of 11.4 percent per year in the period, and the rate was 8.3 percent for insurance companies. The growth rates nearly dropped to half the levels from 2009 to 2016, the CBIRC data showed.

The "shadow banking" business, or off-balance sheet activities of the lenders, declined by 20 trillion yuan from the peak in 2017, it said.

Financial risks in the banking and insurance sectors have been constrained, and China has "held the bottom line" and prevented systemic risks, the CBIRC chairman said.