China's leading commercial banks were urged recently by the top industry regulator to continue to weed out non-performing loans and reduce their NPL ratio this year.

The four leading commercial banks are the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BOC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC).

At a videoconference held recently on regulation and supervision of major commercial banks, Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said that the ICBC, BOC and CCB have edged into the world's top 10 commercial banks in term of market value.

However, Liu stressed, the major Chinese banks still lag behind their sophisticated international peers in terms of in-house governance, risk control, customized services and product innovation.

Jiang Dingzhi, vice chairman of the industry watchdog, said this year banking regulators will help major commercial banks develop in a steady manner, deepen reform of the banks and help reduce NPLs and improve banks' balance sheets.

According to data provided by the banking regulatory commission, last year the NPLs of the four leading commercial banks dropped by 18.8 billion yuan (2.4 billion U.S. dollars) to 1,053.5 billion yuan (135.4 billion U.S. dollars), with the NPL ratio down by 1.26 percentage points to 9.22 percent.

Source: Xinhua