China’s Banking Sector Dumps Record $490 Billion of Bad Assets in 2021

China’s banking sector disposed of 3.1 trillion yuan ($490 billion) of nonperforming assets in 2021, the highest total in history, the sector’s regulator said Tuesday.

As of the end of last year, off-balance sheet forms of financing — or shadow banking that exists outside the conventional bank lending system — decreased by 4.2 trillion yuan ($663 billion) from the beginning of last year, China's Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said in a statement summarizing the regulator’s 2022 work meeting a day earlier.