China asks top banks to provide $84 billion in property funding- Bloomberg News
FILE PHOTO: Residential and commercial buildings are located in downtown Guangzhou, China October 7, 2017. Picture taken October 7, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo
China's financial regulators have asked its six largest banks to offer at least 600 billion yuan ($84.32 billion) of financial support to the property sector in a bid to gear up for the deepening liquidity crisis, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The People's Bank of China and the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission have told these state-owned banks to help in any form including mortgages, loans to developers and purchases of their bonds, the report said.
The central bank on Thursday introduced measures for speeding up the use of special loans to ensure housing sales are completed, and its plans to guide commercial banks to provide financing support for the scheme.
The government has in recent months rolled out a raft of measures to support the economy, which narrowly escaped a contraction in the June quarter, but the recovery remains shallow due to strict COVID curbs and a property slump.
PBOC and CBIRC could not be immediately reached for comment.
($1 = 7.1158 Chinese yuan renminbi)
