Global auditing firm Ernst and Young has withdrawn a report saying China's non-performing loans (NPLs) totaled over US$900 billion, apologizing for what it called an "erroneous" publication.
"As it contains errors, we are withdrawing the report," the firm said in a statement. "We apologize that this erroneous report was issued. We sincerely regret any misleading views that the report conveyed."
The size of China's bad loans is a figure of immense importance, as it serves as a measure of the banking sector's financial health.
Ernst and Young's decision came after China's central bank said the report, which claimed NPLs for the four large state-owned commercial banks totaled US$358 billion, "seriously distorted" the actual situation.
In its statement retracting the Non-Performing Loan Report, issued on May 3, Ernst and Young said a US$911 billion estimate for China's NPLs had been based on the wrong assumptions.
"Throughout the report this amount was identified as a potential future amount that includes NPLs totaling approximately US$358 billion for the big four commercial banks," it said.
"Upon further research, Ernst and Young Global finds that this number cannot be supported, and believes it to be factually erroneous," it said.
It said the report had not gone through the normal internal review and approval process before it was released to the public.
China's central bank, which was not immediately available for comment yesterday, had adopted unusually harsh vocabulary to refute Ernst and Young's claims in a statement posted on its Web site late last week.
"The report not only seriously distorts the actual assets quality of the Chinese banking sector, its statements on several financial institutions are also seriously wrong and its conclusions are absurd and incomprehensible," the People's Bank of China Web site quoted an unnamed official as saying.
Ernst and Young said the firm was alerted to the mistake by its China branch, but said it had not been approached by the Chinese central bank or other Chinese authorities on the errors.
"Quality and integrity is what we believe in, and we have to do it right," said Annesa Leung (
The company hoped the mistake would not impact the firm's business in China, she said.
Ernst and Young's report, widely quoted earlier this month, came as foreign institutions continued to move into the Chinese banking sector and as the nation's big banks sought a higher international profile.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS