Some of China's major banks have stopped lending as they have already reached their January lending quotas, the China Securities Journal reported Friday, citing banking sources.
"Branches of a state-owned commercial bank were notified by their head office to stop making new loans from Friday, as the bank's lending quota for the month has run out," the report said, citing a source at the bank.
Several other banks have also stopped extending credit for January, the report said.
Last week, citing China's banking regulator, the newspaper said overall lending in January should not exceed 12 percent of the 2011 full-year target, which was 7.2 trillion to 7.5 trillion yuan (US$1.14 trillion).
Most banks had overshot the January quota, with new loans having exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan by Monday, China Business News said.
New yuan-denominated loans in 2010 were 7.95 trillion yuan, over the government goal of 7.5 trillion yuan.
Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank governor, said on Thursday that it will rely on banks' reserve requirement ratio and central bank bills to soak up liquidity.
