4th Conference of Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions kicks off in Damascus

DAMASCUS, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The 4th Conference of Islamic Banks and
Financial Institutions kicked off Monday in Syrian capital Damascus under the
theme "Islamic Banking Investment Opportunities and Competition Challenges."

The two-day conference is expected to address challenges facing the Islamic
financial industry in light of the recent global financial crisis which is
considered a good opportunity to give a push for the Islamic banking system.

The conference will also tackle the issues of liquidity management,
financing companies and individuals, solidarity, insurance, products standards,
regulations on e-banking operations, features of the Syrian Islamic banking
market, according to a statement published in the official website of Al Salam
for International Conferences and Exhibitions.

800 participants from 20 Arab and non-Arab countries, including presidents
of central, Islamic, investment and commercial banks along with businessmen and
investors, attend the conference.

Governor of the Central Bank of Syria Adeeb Miyalah said during the opening
session of the conference that efforts are on foot to establish a fair banking
system that is based on the Islamic Sharia.

China's banking sector issues first social responsibility report

BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China Banking Association (CBA) issued the
first report of its kind in the country on banking sector's social
responsibility on Sunday.

The report, China Banking Sector Social Responsibility Report, introduces
the banking sector's efforts in promoting public welfare and environmental
protection.

The report said the banking sector donated 1.01 billion yuan (148.09 U.S.
dollars) on public welfare covering education, culture, sports, health, science
and environmental protection in 2008.

The banking sector has provided loans worth of 205.36 billion yuan (30.2
billion U.S. dollars) by March end to earthquake-hit areas for relief and
reconstruction, said China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) Saturday.

The banking sector has been giving loans to disadvantaged groups, for
example students who have difficulties to continue with their college education,
the report said.

Founded in 2000, CBA is a non-governmental organization with 81 full members
and 37 associate members.

Banking regulator says government new loans not limited to 5 trillion yuan

Special Report: Boao Forum For Asia
2009

BOAO, Hainan, April 18 (Xinhua) -- China's banking regulator said Saturday the government's target of new loans this year is not limited to 5 trillion yuan (735.3 billion U.S. dollars), and all funds should help keep the sustainable and rapid development of the economy.

Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, made the remarks at a panel discussion of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA).

The government said earlier it expected Chinese banks to extend about 5 trillion yuan of new loans this year. However, new loans in the first quarter of this year already exceeded 93 percent of the total figure.

In March alone, new loans issued in Chinese currency reached 1.89 trillion yuan, the third straight month that new loans exceeded 1 trillion yuan and an increase of 1.61 trillion yuan from last March, central bank data show.

As the government adopted a moderately easy monetary policy to encourage more credit supply as a way to spur economic growth since late last year, worries surged about excessive output capacity and more bad loans.

The amount of new loans boomed in the first three months because a considerable number of projects passed evaluation procedures and were put into operation, said Liu.

The new loans went mainly to infrastructure construction and would not result in excessive industrial output capacity, he said.

Funds also went to projects that improve people's livelihood, and business-related sectors such as inventory and logistics, he said.

Agriculture-related loans saw a major increase of 28.3 percent,1.3 percentage points more than the average increase rate. In this sense, there was an evidence of more developed finance services in rural areas, said Liu.

Liu admitted that the risk of bad loans would increase, but said the banking system could handle it. "Risk increases whenever credit soars at a pace of more than 20 percent," said Liu. The first quarter saw a 27-percent increase in loans.

However, he was not afraid of a rebound in non-performing loans(NPL) in the banking system, for the industry has established a sound mechanism. The provision for the first quarter had exceeded 900 billion yuan.

Both the amount of NPL and its ratio in the total outstanding loans would continue to decline this year, and China's banking system would remain sound and healthy, Liu said.

The NPL ratio of lenders, including foreign banks in China, was2.04 percent at the end of March, down 0.38 percentage points from the beginning of 2009, said the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) in a statement earlier this week.

In the meantime, Liu asked domestic banks to be prudent in expanding business overseas.

Banking, mining shares push London market to higher close

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

LONDON, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The London Stock Market closed higher on Thursday boosted by banking and mining shares.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was 58.19 points, or 1.48 percent, higher at 3,983.71 at the close, led by higher metal prices and better performance from the banking shares.

Vedanta Resources led the gainers by adding 13 percent, while Eurasian Natural Resources was up 10.72 percent.

Barclays share rose 12.48 percent, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland, which was up 11.11 percent. Lloyds Banking Group also added 10.88 percent.