China Faces Obstacles on Road to Consumer Society

Business should be picking up for Zhao Guoping, a Beijing shopkeeper, as Chinese leaders try to build a consumer society to replace a worn-out economic model based on trade and investment.

Exclusive: China to let banks sell off loans in prelude to possible bailout

(Reuters) - China is developing a new trading platform to enable banks to sell off loans to a wider range of investors, in a move that could pave the way for a government bailout of lenders or distressed asset sales to private investors.

Slowing savings growth weighs on Chinese bank earnings

HONG KONG: Weak deposit growth weighed on China's banks in the first quarter, forcing lenders including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd to pay more for savers' money and eating into their margins.

China loan growth quickens

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's banks ratcheted up lending in the last month of 2011 on the back of stronger money supply, reinforcing perceptions that the central bank is gently easing policy to cushion the impact of the global economic slowdown.