Book Chapter

China’s Fortress Banking System

Walter, Carl, Howie, Fraser

2012

Overview

This chapter focuses on China's Fortress Banking System. In China, the banks are the financial system; nearly all financial risk is concentrated on their balance sheets. The heart of China's financial system includes just four banks: Bank of China (BOC), China Construction Bank (CCB), Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). In China, capital begins and ends with the Big 4 banks and Bank of Communications. The banking system has thousands of entities if the 12 second‐tier banks, the urban and rural banks, Postal Savings Bank, and credit cooperatives, are included. In 1977, China was bankrupt; its commercial and political institutions were in tatters. There was no real national economy, only a collection of local fiefdoms held together by a broken Party organization. The chapter discusses the strategy used to pull it all back together. It also provides a straightforward comparison between U.S. and Chinese banks that is based on their total assets.

• Publisher: Wiley,John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated,John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subject: assets / balance sheets / commercial institutions / credit cooperatives / FINANCE & ACCOUNTING / financial system / Fortress Banking System / national economy / Party organization / Postal Savings Bank
• ISBN: 9781118255100, 1118255100