IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/bofitp/bdp2020_002.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The vanishing interest income of Chinese banks

Author

Listed:
  • Kauko, Karlo

Abstract

Chinese banks likely have more non-performing loans (NPLs) than officially reported. As hidden NPLs earn no interest income, loan quality problems may erode the gross interest income of banks. Using stochastic frontier analysis, we estimate the interest income of a hypothetical profit-maximis-ing Chinese bank with no credit quality problems. Taking the deviation of actual interest income from the calculated efficient income, we then attempt to reveal the amount of hidden NPLs in Chi-nese banks. Our results uncover a substantial weakening in the quality of Chinese bank loan portfo-lios in 2016. Big banks are found to have the largest reservoirs of hidden NPLs. Dependence on interbank funding also seems to be a determinant in the size of hidden NPL portfolios.

Suggested Citation

  • Kauko, Karlo, 2020. "The vanishing interest income of Chinese banks," BOFIT Discussion Papers 2/2020, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:bofitp:bdp2020_002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/240353/1/dp2002.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zuzana FUNGACOVA & Paul-Olivier KLEIN & Laurent WEILL, 2018. "Persistent and Transient Inefficiency: Explaining the Low Efficiency of Chinese Big Banks," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2018-07, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    2. Megginson, William L. & Ullah, Barkat & Wei, Zuobao, 2014. "State ownership, soft-budget constraints, and cash holdings: Evidence from China’s privatized firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 276-291.
    3. Goncharenko, Roman & Hledik, Juraj & Pinto, Roberto, 2018. "The dark side of stress tests: Negative effects of information disclosure," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 49-59.
    4. Matthieu Bouvard & Pierre Chaigneau & Adolfo De Motta, 2015. "Transparency in the Financial System: Rollover Risk and Crises," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1805-1837, August.
    5. Lisic, Ling Lei & Silveri, Sabatino (Dino) & Song, Yanheng & Wang, Kun, 2015. "Accounting fraud, auditing, and the role of government sanctions in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1186-1195.
    6. Bailey, Warren & Huang, Wei & Yang, Zhishu, 2011. "Bank Loans with Chinese Characteristics: Some Evidence on Inside Debt in a State-Controlled Banking System," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(6), pages 1795-1830, December.
    7. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    8. Carlos Serrano-Cinca & Yolanda Fuertes-Call鮠 & Bego uti鲲ez-Nieto & Beatriz Cuellar-Fernᮤez, 2014. "Path modelling to bankruptcy: causes and symptoms of the banking crisis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(31), pages 3798-3811, November.
    9. Kaiji Chen & Jue Ren & Tao Zha, 2018. "The Nexus of Monetary Policy and Shadow Banking in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(12), pages 3891-3936, December.
    10. Stefan Angrick & Naoyuki Yoshino, 2020. "From Window Guidance to Interbank Rates: Tracing the Transition of Monetary Policy in Japan and China," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 16(3), pages 279-316, June.
    11. Pierre Pessarossi & Laurent Weill, 2015. "Les exigences de fonds propres influencent-elles l’efficience des banques ?. Leçons d’une expérience naturelle en Chine," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 66(3), pages 505-520.
    12. Tao Zha & Jue Ren & Kaiji Chen, 2016. "What We Learn from China's Rising Shadow Banking: Exploring the Nexus of Monetary Tightening and Banks' Role in Entrusted Lending," 2016 Meeting Papers 82, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    13. Liang, Qi & Xu, Pisun & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2013. "Board characteristics and Chinese bank performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 2953-2968.
    14. repec:cup:jfinqa:v:46:y:2011:i:06:p:1795-1830_00 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Jiatao Li & Carmen Ng, 2013. "The Normalization of Deviant Organizational Practices: The Non-performing Loans Problem in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(4), pages 643-653, June.
    16. Zhang, Longyao & Hsu, Sara & Xu, Zhong & Cheng, Enjiang, 2020. "Responding to financial crisis: Bank credit expansion with Chinese characteristics," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    17. repec:zbw:bofitp:2019_008 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Funke, Michael & Tsang, Andrew, 2019. "The direction and intensity of China's monetary policy conduct: A dynamic factor modelling approach," BOFIT Discussion Papers 8/2019, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    19. Bian, Wenlong & Deng, Chao, 2017. "Ownership dispersion and bank performance: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 49-52.
    20. Zhang, Dayong & Cai, Jing & Dickinson, David G. & Kutan, Ali M., 2016. "Non-performing loans, moral hazard and regulation of the Chinese commercial banking system," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 48-60.
    21. repec:zbw:bofitp:2018_004 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Jiang, Chunxia & Yao, Shujie & Feng, Genfu, 2013. "Bank ownership, privatization, and performance: Evidence from a transition country," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3364-3372.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yuan, Mengyi & Zhang, Lin & Lian, Yonghui, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty and stock price crash risk of commercial banks: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 587-605.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:zbw:bofitp:2020_002 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Karlo Kauko, 2021. "The Vanishing Interest Income of Chinese Banks," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 20(3), pages 94-113, Fall.
    3. Luo, Ronghua & Fang, Hongyan & Liu, Jinjin & Zhao, Senyang, 2019. "Maturity mismatch and incentives: Evidence from bank issued wealth management products in China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.
    4. Mamatzakis, Emmanuel & Zhang, Xiaoxiang & Wang, Chaoke, 2017. "Ownership structure and bank performance: An emerging market perspective," MPRA Paper 80653, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Tian, Yunlin & Pan, Xiaofei & Pang, Baoqing & Wu, Yiping, 2023. "Political career concerns and bank lending in China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    6. Wang, Xiaoxiao & Liu, Haiming, 2022. "The impact of rollover restriction on stock price crash risk," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Hao, Xiangchao & Shi, Jing & Yang, Jian, 2014. "The differential impact of the bank–firm relationship on IPO underpricing: evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 207-232.
    8. Ralph de Haas & Sergei Guriev & Alexander Stepanov, 2022. "State Ownership and Corporate Leverage Around the World," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03878686, HAL.
    9. Ma, Yongfan & Hu, Xingcun, 2024. "Shadow banking and SME investment: Evidence from China's new asset management regulations," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 332-349.
    10. Chen, Zhuo & He, Zhiguo & Liu, Chun, 2020. "The financing of local government in China: Stimulus loan wanes and shadow banking waxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 42-71.
    11. Wang, Xiaoxiao, 2024. "Bank affiliation and lottery-like characteristics of mutual funds," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 944-963.
    12. Guiting Lin & Alice Y. Ouyang, 2024. "Macroprudential policy leakage: Evidence from shadow banking activities of Chinese enterprises," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 42(1), pages 160-182, January.
    13. Usman Bashir & Shoaib Khan & Abdulhafiz Jones & Muntazir Hussain, 2021. "Do banking system transparency and market structure affect financial stability of Chinese banks?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 1-41, February.
    14. Lei Song & Yu Chen, 2025. "Does a non-performing assets disposal fund help control systemic risk? Evidence from an interbank financial network in China," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 11(1), pages 1-45, December.
    15. Brei, Michael & Jacolin, Luc & Noah, Alphonse, 2020. "Credit risk and bank competition in Sub-Saharan Africa," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    16. Fan, Rui & Ma, Lijun & Pan, Jianping & Yin, Sirui & Gao, Hao, 2022. "Financial institution shareholding and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 835-856.
    17. Yong Tan & Peter Wanke & Jorge Antunes & Ali Emrouznejad, 2021. "Unveiling endogeneity between competition and efficiency in Chinese banks: a two-stage network DEA and regression analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 306(1), pages 131-171, November.
    18. Samaresh Bardhan & Rajesh Sharma & Vivekananda Mukherjee, 2019. "Threshold Effect of Bank-specific Determinants of Non-performing Assets: An Application in Indian Banking," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 18(1_suppl), pages 1-34, April.
    19. Pant, Abhay & Nidugala, Ganesh Kumar, 2022. "Board characteristics and efficiency of value added by banks: Evidence from an emerging economy," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. Martin Hodula & Ngoc Anh Ngo, 2021. "Does Macroprudential Policy Leak? Evidence from Non-Bank Credit Intermediation in EU Countries," Working Papers 2021/5, Czech National Bank, Research and Statistics Department.
    21. George Kladakis & Lei Chen & Sotirios K. Bellos, 2022. "Wholesale funding and liquidity creation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1501-1524, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    China; banks; non-performing loans; NPLs; impaired loans;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:bofitp:bdp2020_002. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bofitfi.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.