The Structure Reformation And The Competitiveness Changes Of The Chinese State-owned Commercial Banks

This study is intended to suggest some current issues of policy for the competitiveness of Chinese state-owned commercial banks, on the occasion of the era of financial grobalization, which have been heading for the leading banks in the world.The four banks, that is, The Industrial Commercial Bank of China, The Agricultural Bank of China, The Bank of China and The China Construction Bank, which have been continuously developing on parallel with the growth of the total Chinese banking industries, are nowadays the major financial institutions enjoying(occupying) over 50% share of the Chinese banking market.The above banks has become weak in their competitiveness in the market economy because of their deterioration of their soundness and profitability owing to the defaults of the large loans which had provided to the state-owned enterprises on the course of carrying out the national functions under the planned economy system.The Chinese government accepted the completely opening of the financial market by 2006 on the occasion of the entrance into the WTO in 2001. Accordingly, the Chinese government has led structuctural reformation of the state-owned banks in large scale with the three objectives of the insolvent credits, financial reorganization, and corporation's public offering against the foreign banks' entrance in the Chinese financial markets.The non-profitable loans which occurred before 1995 were arranged through The four big Asset Management Corporations, and the government poured public funds for the initial public corporation offerings from the end of 2003 into the state-owned banks except the Agricultural Bank of China which has been being executed lately.The Industrial Bank of China, The Bank of China and The China Construction Bank raised a large amount of funds from the Hong Kong and Shang Hai Stock Markets along with executing the IPO during 2004 to 2005. Consequently the above banks can show a remarkablly better financial statements in profitability, stability and liquidity. According to their management normalization their credit status have been lifted up, as "The Banker", the English financial magazine, gave the high ranks-14th, 9th and 7th among the 1000 banks in the world on the basis of basic capital.The assets scale of The Industrial Bank of China, The Bank of China and The China Construction Bank have already reached the level of the top-ranking banks in the world. They have the capability enough to compete in the fiercely competitive markets and the qualifications enough to expand their business abroad, through improvement of profitability, construction of management and internal control structure, and reinforcement of the management adminstration and risk management.The three objectives proposed at the beginnings has been accomplished through the structural reformation of the state-owned banks led by the government. The first things is to arrange the insolvent credits for the recovering the soundness of the state-owned banks, the second is to change the ownership into the modernized one, that is stock company system, for the responsibility management, and the third is to widen the open management and carry out initial public corporation offerings in order to attract strategical investments into the state-owned banks, so realize the diversification of stockholders, and receive the advanced financial techniques.Herewith are provided some current viewpoints for the strengthening of competitiveness of the state-owned banks which are now heading for the first-class banks.The First is to strengthen liquidity management, the second is to improve earning structures, and the third is to reinforce superintendent management.