Getting the ball rolling

With China’s banking sector due to open up in 2006, efforts to resolve the country’s non-performing loans are assuming greater urgency. Alice Hales reports on how securitisation may be one solution to the problem

With annual economic growth rates that are the envy of the rest of the world,and its accession in 2001 to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) symbolising itsintegration into the global economic community, it seems strange to talk of acrisis looming in China. But China suffers from a legacy that, unless tackled,could have major consequences for its banks’ competitiveness.

Imprudent government-mandated lending to poorly managed and inefficient state-ownedenterprises resulted in huge portfolios of