Club Lunch: Why The Bears Are Wrong: China’s Banks Are Not Going To Collapse

Bears have long been predicting a crisis for China’s banks. Years of rapid credit growth has left a hangover of massive debt. A property market shock or a jolt in the nation’s murky shadow banking sector could trigger a crisis. Yet no banking crisis has occurred.  What are the bears missing? Jim Stent, author of China’s Banking Transformation: The Untold Story, published in 2017 by Oxford University Press, argued that China’s financial system is stronger than it looks to outsiders and that an obsession with non-performing loans misses the strengths of the banking system, and overlooks the tools that the authorities have to prevent defaults. His book describes the transformation of the Chinese banking system over the past two decades, and examines the banking system as a prism for understanding the dynamics of the Chinese political economy.

Jim Stent has pursued a career in financial services in Thailand and China. Commencing in 2006 he served six years as an independent director and chairman of the audit committee of the China Everbright Bank, followed by four years as a member of the bank’s Board of Supervisors. From 2003-2006 he was an independent director on the board of the China Minsheng Bank in Beijing. He is presently an independent director and chairman of the audit committee of the XacBank of Mongolia.