Major banks dive in to back economic growth

State-owned financial institutions including the big five banks and China Life (2628) made a rare move by simultaneously announcing support for economic growth yesterday after President Xi Jinping's pledge on growth.

Of the big five, China Construction Bank (0939) said it intends to invest 30 billion yuan (HK$32.8 billion) to establish a residential leasing fund to explore a new model of rental and purchase real estate development.

Its yuan-settled credit increased to about 20 trillion yuan by September this year, up 2.1 trillion yuan in nine months.

Bank of China (3988) said it had taken 42 supportive measures in eight areas to support troubled entities. As a result, customer loans rose 10.78 percent to 17.41 trillion yuan in the first three quarters.

BOC noted it would continue to improve its cross-border financial services, as it ranked first with about US$2.6 trillion (HK$20.28 trillion) among domestic institutions in international settlement business for the first nine months.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (1398) said that it has disbursed more than 5 trillion yuan in new investment financing in the first three quarters to help to stabilize the economy.

Bank of Communications (3328) pointed out that it served the real economy by increasing financial supply and optimizing the credit structure. Its total financing volume exceeded 800 billion yuan, while domestic yuan-denominated loans increased 10.63 percent, or 644.4 billion yuan, from January to September.

Agricultural Bank Of China (1288) said that it offered more than 900 billion yuan in new loans in key areas such as the production and supply of agricultural products, rural industries and rural construction.

China Life Insurance (2628) said it has used the long-term stability of insurance funds by investing more than 3.3 trillion yuan in key areas which serve the real economy during the first nine months of this year.

Looking ahead, Citic Securities (6030) said the A-share market would fully recover in the coming months, mainly supported by clear reform policies, despite the possible fluctuations caused by factors like interest rate increases in the United States.