Cautious is perhaps the best word to describe China’s banks in 2017. The country’s economic slowdown is putting pressure on asset quality, net interest margins have dropped and financial regulators, particularly the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), are cracking down on malpractice in the financial sector.
Against this backdrop, China’s larger banks are focusing on diversifying income sources cautiously through retail banking, fee-based business and international expansion. As a testament to this theme of prudence, even Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the top bank in the world by Tier 1 capital according to The Banker’s Top 1000 ranking, is renewing its focus on its home network.
