China

The new hot thing for Chinese savers is about as old and boring as it gets. Bank deposits, shunned for years by the nation’s return-hungry masses, are suddenly looking attractive again as higher-yielding investments prove riskier than many had anticipated, Bloomberg News reported. China’s household deposits rose in July at the fastest annual rate in a year -- an influx that analysts say may accelerate after the nation’s stock market sank at the quickest pace worldwide, hundreds of peer-to-peer lending platforms shuttered and companies defaulted on their debt at an unprecedented rate.

China is helping Africa develop, not pile up debt, a top Chinese official said on Tuesday, as the government pushes back against criticism it is loading the continent with an unsustainable burden during a major summit in Beijing. President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion to African nations at Monday's opening of a China-Africa forum on cooperation, matching the size of funds offered at the last summit in Johannesburg in 2015, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Fines levied by China's banking regulator have surged since Guo Shuqing became its head in February 2017, rising nearly six-fold from the cumulative fines levied over the previous 14 years, UBS said in a report. The exponential increase in fines highlights a much stricter level of enforcement of regulations in the banking sector as Beijing seeks to fend off systematic financial risks, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

China’s six largest lenders, which control a combined $16 trillion of assets, mentioned the word almost 1,900 times in their first-half earnings announcements, up about 9 percent from the same period of 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Bank of China Ltd. said it achieved “new breakthroughs in risk mitigation,” while China Construction Bank Corp. touted its “stringent risk management,” Bloomberg News reported.

A wave of African nations looking to restructure debt with China on the eve of a major Beijing summit provides a reality check for the continent, where most countries still view Chinese lending as the best bet to develop their economies, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. China has denied engaging in "debt trap" diplomacy, but President Xi Jinping is likely to use next week's gathering of African leaders to offer a new round of financing, following a pledge of $60 billion at the last summit three years ago.

Chinese finance-to-aviation conglomerate HNA on Monday paid the Rmb1bn ($147m) principal on a bond after missing the payment on Friday due to what it said was a glitch in the interbank transfer system, the Financial Times reported. The payment of the bond principal averts the closest call yet for HNA, which delayed or extended debt during a liquidity crisis in the fourth quarter of 2017. It has since sold about $18bn in assets, according to company statements and data from Thomson Reuters. The 270-day bond that came due on Friday was issued during HNA’s tense period last year.

Bohai Steel Group, a debt-stricken state-owned enterprise, has entered bankruptcy proceedings as Tianjin Higher People’s Court accepted its creditor Tianjin Seri Machinery Equipment Corp., Ltd.’s application to reorganize Bohai Steel Group on August 24th, China Money Network reported. The group’s bankruptcy and reorganization process involves 48 businesses located in Tianjin and Hebei province. China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said it will work with Tianjin municipal government to establish a creditors committee.

China’s consumer finance industry is sagging under an intensifying campaign of regulation, Bloomberg News reported. That could be a problem for an economy that’s relying on domestic demand to sustain growth amid the trade war with the U.S. The government has started a fresh round of checks on thousands of peer-to-peer lending sites, Bloomberg News reported last week. Meanwhile, shares of U.S.-listed cash-loan provider Qudian Inc. fell 12 percent on Friday after a separate Bloomberg report that it would lose access to customers through Ant Financial’s Alipay app.

U.S. officials seem to think they have the upper hand in trade talks with China because its economy is struggling. Judging by the string of measures they’ve recently announced to shore up growth, Chinese officials may privately agree. The trouble is, such measures aren’t going to work as fast or as well as markets seem to think they will. China’s growth woes are homegrown, not the result of U.S. tariffs, a Bloomberg View reported.

China is tightening its clampdown on cryptocurrencies, nearly a year after the government imposed a wide-ranging ban on local exchanges and fundraising for digital currencies, The Wall Street Journal reported. Financial officials in an eastern district of Beijing issued a notice last week to stores, hotels and offices urging them not to host any cryptocurrency-related speeches, events or activities.