Some smaller Chinese banks rushed to build a liquidity cushion in the third quarter while others were slow to grow their buffers. The divergent trend likely signals pockets of short-term liquidity risk in a slowing economy.
China's midtier, city and rural commercial banks posted some of the highest and lowest increases in liquidity coverage ratios to cover unexpected short-term cash outflows in the third quarter from a year earlier, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Ping An Bank Co. Ltd.'s liquidity coverage ratio stood at 105.11% as of Sept. 30, the lowest among 44 Asia-Pacific banks with assets more than US$100 billion. The ratio was down 6 percentage points, or pps, from a year earlier.
Industrial Bank Co. Ltd. came in second-lowest in the group with a ratio of 111.62%. It was down 71 pps year over year, the second-biggest drop after Japan's The Norinchukin Bank.
Highest cover
Meanwhile, eight Chinese city and rural commercial banks, which lend to small businesses and farmers in a small geographic area, were among the top 10 lenders in Asia-Pacific that scored the highest liquidity coverage ratios as of Sept. 30.
Bank of Nanjing Co. Ltd. led the pack with a ratio of 277.29%, a 124-pps rise from a year earlier. The bank was followed by Chongqing Rural Commercial Bank Co. Ltd. and Bank of Chengdu Co. Ltd., with ratios of 276.31% and 244.14%, respectively.
"Many village banks in China do not have a strong balance sheet. It's always a confidence game to prevent a situation where people withdraw from banks en masse," said Harry Hu, senior director at S&P Global Ratings.
As China's economic growth slows, smaller commercial banks are under more pressure than large state-owned lenders, analysts said. Smaller lenders that are less diversified in geographic reach and types of borrowers are likely more vulnerable to liquidity risk amid the ongoing debt problems with many property developers and weakening global trade.
Larger banks with more geographic and loan-portfolio diversification reported steady or little change in their liquidity coverage ratios.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp., China's two biggest banks, saw a slight increase in their liquidity coverage ratios at 120.67% and 147.76%, respectively.
The ratio at Japanese megabanks — Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. — eased to 158.64%, 149.51% and 125.57%, respectively.