Profits at China’s four-biggest banks were further squeezed in the third quarter, as shrinking interest margins and rising bad loans took their toll on the once high-flying sector.

利差收窄和不良贷款上升开始影响一度风光无限的中国银行业，中国“四大行”第三季度盈利遭到进一步挤压。

The lacklustre reporting season is a sharp reversal for the banks, led by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which in 2012 ballooned to eclipse global peers in terms of assets. That prompted then-premier Wen Jiabao to comment that the banks “make profits far too easily”.

乏善可陈的财报季，显示出以中国工商银行(ICBC)为首的四大行的命运逆转。2012年，这些银行曾迅速扩张，在资产规模上令全球同行黯然失色。这促使时任中国总理的温家宝评论道，银行“获得利润太容易了”。

Third-quarter earnings data released last week are the latest sign that the era of easy profits is ending as China’s economy slows and interest rates are deregulated. Net profit at Bank of China, the country's fourth-largest lender, fell in the third quarter for the first time on record, while profit was flat at China Construction Bank, the second largest.

随着中国经济放缓和利率去监管化，上周发布的第三季度业绩数据是银行轻松获利时代正在终结的最新迹象。第三季度，中国第四大银行中国银行(BoC)的净利润有记录以来首次同比下降，第二大银行中国建设银行(CCB)的净利润则同比持平。

Net interest margins, the spread between the rates at which banks borrow and lend money, are shrinking as China completes interest rate deregulation. Alongside an interest-rate cut last month, the central bank said that it was eliminating the cap on deposit rates. The move followed a gradual loosening of the cap over the past two years.

随着中国完成利率去监管化，净利差（银行借入和借出资金的利率之差）也在缩小。上月中国央行除降息以外，还宣布取消存款利率浮动上限。过去两年中，中国央行已经逐步放松这一上限。

The combination of a cap on deposit rates and a floor on lending rates for years ensured fat margins for Chinese banks. Combined profits at the big four banks rose from Rmb250bn ($39.6bn) in 2007 to Rmb738bn ($116.8bn) five years later. The loan-rate floor was eliminated in 2013. Analysts are undecided on the extent to which banks will now begin to raise deposit rates as they compete for customer funds.

多年来，存款利率上限加上贷款利率下限确保中国的银行获得丰厚的利润。从2007年到2012年，四大行的总利润从2500亿元人民币（合396亿美元）增至7380亿元人民币（合1168亿美元）。2013年，贷款利率下限被取消。目前，分析师还不确定银行为争夺客户资金会把存款利率抬高到何种程度。

“Interest-rate liberalisation is ushering in a new era of hand-to-hand combat for the banking sector,” Yang Rong, analyst at China Securities, wrote last week.

“利率自由化开创了银行业竞争白刃战的新时代，”中信建投证券(CSCI)的分析师杨荣上周写道。

For now, Chinese banks remain among the most profitable in the world. Return on equity at CCB was 19.5 per cent in the first nine months of the year, down nearly 3 percentage points from the year before but still comfortably ahead of HSBC at 10.6 per cent.

目前，中国的银行仍位居世界上最赚钱的银行之列。今年头9个月，建行的股本回报率为19.5%，同比下降了近3个百分点，但依然远高于汇丰(HSBC)的10.6%。

Bad loans are also rising as the economy slows and China’s manufacturing sector struggles with overcapacity and falling prices.

随着中国经济放缓、制造业艰难应对产能过剩和价格下降，银行的不良贷款也在上升。

Non-performing loans rose at all four major Chinese banks, with Agricultural Bank of China suffering the largest jump, to 2.02 per cent of total assets at the end of September from 1.83 per cent three months earlier.

四大行的不良贷款都上升了，其中中国农业银行(ABC)升幅最大，不良贷款率从6月底的1.83%升至9月底的2.02%。

Analysts note that headline profits at Chinese banks are skewed by the share of profits set aside as provisions against future bad loans. Less provisioning boosts quarterly profits but makes the balance sheet less resilient if defaults rise sharply. Some banks are now provisioning less conservatively.

分析师指出，为未来不良贷款计提拨备的多少扭曲了中国的银行利润。少提拨备会提高季度利润，但如果违约急剧上升，这也使资产负债表失去了一部分抗压能力。目前有些银行的拨备计提不如原来保守。

“Considering that the NPL growth rate reached a new all-time high of 73 per cent year-on-year, we feel [AgBank’s] policy of reducing impairments to loans in each successive quarter this year is not conservative,” wrote James Antos, Asia banks analyst at Mizuho Securities.

“考虑到不良贷款同比增长率达到了有史以来最高的73%，我们认为（农行）今年逐个季度降低所计入的贷款减值损失的政策并不保守，”瑞穗证券(Mizuho Securities)亚洲银行业分析师詹姆斯褠塛斯(James Antos)表示。

For the banking system as a whole, bad loans rose by Rmb398bn in the year to June to Rmb1.1tn, according to the latest government figures. The bad-loan problem is suspected to be more serious at small, unlisted banks. The official NPL ratio at rural commercial banks was 2.03 per cent at end-June.

根据最新的政府数据，在截至今年6月的一年里，整个银行业的不良贷款增加3980亿元人民币，至1.1万亿元人民币。人们怀疑，规模较小、未上市银行的不良贷款问题更为严重。据官方数据，6月底农村商业银行的不良贷款率为2.2%。

Many analysts doubt the veracity of China’s official NPL figures, suspecting that lenders conceal delinquencies by rolling over or extending overdue loans.

许多分析师怀疑中国官方不良贷款数据的真实性，认为银行可能通过对逾期贷款进行展期或者延期隐瞒违约情况。