In 2009, a flood of loans saved the day for China's economy. Now, there is barely a trickle, The Wall Street Journal Heard on the Street blog reported. New loans in July slid 41% month on month to 540.1 billion yuan ($84.9 billion). One reason: a new dynamic in China's banking system from wealth-management products, which offer a higher return than bank deposits. Fitch Ratings estimates about 10.4 trillion yuan was in WMPs at the end of June, equal to 11.5% of bank-sector deposits.

Concerns about China's economy intensified Friday on signs that attempts to kick-start growth aren't working and new evidence of weakness in the export sector, putting pressure on Beijing to move more aggressively, The Wall Street Journal reported. New loans by China's banks fell to 540.1 billion yuan ($85.1 billion) in July, down from 919.8 billion yuan in June, and the lowest level since September 2011, despite efforts by the central bank to make it easier to lend. Export growth also disappointed. July exports were up just 1% from a year ago, slowing from June's 11.3% pace.

In 2009, a flood of loans saved the day for China's economy. Now, there is barely a trickle, The Wall Street Journal Heard on the Street blog reported. New loans in July slid 41% month on month to 540.1 billion yuan ($84.9 billion). One reason: a new dynamic in China's banking system from wealth-management products, which offer a higher return than bank deposits. Fitch Ratings estimates about 10.4 trillion yuan was in WMPs at the end of June, equal to 11.5% of bank-sector deposits.

Embattled timber company Sino-Forest Corp., which is in bankruptcy protection, says it is owed half a billion dollars from companies that have been deregistered in China, thestar.com reported. Sino-Forest, which filed for bankruptcy protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in March, said in a new release Tuesday that it intends “to take all steps necessary” to collect receivables owing to it. It added that it believes the deregistrations, which have the effect of terminating the existence of the entities, were improper under Chinese law.

Some of China’s struggling auto makers, burdened by debt, may be forced into involuntary bankruptcy, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said last week, Forbes reported. The Ministry said in a note published on Tuesday that it is considering the introduction of a withdrawal mechanism to force near-bankrupt automakers out of the bloated automotive industry. China has around 1,300 automobile makers, including 171 car, truck and bus makers and more than 900 specialty vehicle manufacturers, according to the government.

China's statisticians get a tough press. After all, it was Europe, not China, whose fudged public finance data helped usher in the latest round of global financial turmoil. The biggest corporate fraud in recent memory isn't China's Sino-Forest, but America's Enron, The Wall Street Journal Heard on the Street blog reported. But a secretive single-party state claiming rapid growth as the rest of the world hovers on the brink of recession naturally arouses suspicion. The official numbers show growth in China's gross domestic product at 7.6% year-on-year in the second quarter.

Two Chinese private equity funds are closing in on a deal to buy the asset management arm of Dexia, highlighting the interest of Asian buyers in European financial assets as banks look to restructure in the wake of the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported. If the sale of the business for about €500m is completed, it would mark the last stage of a break-up of the twice-bailed-out Belgo-French bank, one of the biggest European victims of successive financial crises during the past four years.

Sino-Forest Corp said on Tuesday it terminated a proposed asset sale, in favor of a plan that will result in the company's creditors acquiring all of its forestry assets, Reuters reported. The Chinese forestry company's shares plummeted in June 2011 after a short-seller accused it of exaggerating the size of its forestry assets. The company's stock has since been de-listed by the Toronto Stock Exchange and one of Canada's main securities regulators - the Ontario Securities Commission, recently charged the company and some of its former executives with fraud.

Central banks around the world took major steps Thursday to stave off fears of global recession, with the European Central Bank slashing interest rates, China unexpectedly cutting bank lending rates and the Bank of England pumping billions of pounds into Britain’s stimulus program, The Washington Post reported. The measures reflect a growing sense of international urgency about faltering economies and underline the continued power of central banks to take unilateral measures to fight the crisis, even as elected policymakers haggle over their own long-term responses.

Many Chinese exporters are starting to hoard the dollars they earn, betting that the yuan is unlikely to appreciate much more, a shift in strategy that is having a ripple effect throughout the country's financial system, The Wall Street Journal reported. Until recently, Chinese exporters like state-owned Huihong International Group and privately held Saijia Co. had rushed to sell their dollar earnings to banks as soon as they got paid, in exchange for the appreciating yuan.