China CITIC Bank increases retail focus

China CITIC Bank optimized its business structure by devoting a larger part of credit resources to retail banking in the first half of 2017.

During the six months ending June 30, the Beijing-based national joint-stock commercial lender recorded incremental loans worth 213.17 billion yuan ($32 billion), of which 82 percent were personal loans, the bank said in its interim results announcement.

Retail banking contributed 31.1 percent to its operating income during the period, up from 25 percent a year ago.

"With more investments in retail banking, we'll continue to see growth in this segment of our business every year for the next few years, although the growth rate may not be as noticeable as that of the first half of 2017," Fang Heying, vice-president of China CITIC Bank, said at a news conference on Friday.

He noted that the bank's price of personal loans is 50 basis points higher than that of corporate loans in the first half due to consumption upgrading and an increase in demand for personal loans.

Meanwhile, the bank made more structural adjustments to corporate loans. Loans to rental and business services, cultural, sports and entertainment industries, and other sectors that enjoyed its priority support maintained a high growth rate.

Loans to overcapacity industries continued to shrink, according to the interim results announcement.

The adjustment to its business structure has improved the bank's assets quality. Its non-performing loan ratio fell 4 basis points from the end of last year to 1.65 percent as of June 30. Its balance of special mention loans, potentially weak loans or assets presenting an unwarranted credit risk, dropped 7.3 percent to 71.03 billion yuan. The proportion of special mention loan balance in the total loan balance also declined by 35 basis points to 2.3 percent.

Yao Ming, risk director and general manager of credit department at China CITIC Bank, said: "The slowdown in the growth of non-performing loans will be affected by our efforts to adjust asset structure, especially the structure of our clients and business sectors."

The bank has tightened internal controls by withdrawing credit approval authority from second-tier branches and limiting it to first-tier branches and the head office. It also strengthened performance appraisal on risk management and the accountability system, Yao added.