Outlook For Northeast Asian Banking Systems Is Stable: Moody's

(RTTNews) - Moody's Investors Service said Thursday that the Northeast Asian banking system outlook remains stable.

"With the exception of Mongolia, our Northeast Asian banking system outlooks are stable," Deborah Schuler, senior vice president at Moody's Asia Pacific Financial Institutions said during the a conference hosted by the rating agency in Hong Kong. Non-perfoming loans or NPLs appear to have peaked at much lower levels than expected, she said.

The agency expects that Chinese banks may have to set aside additional provisions to cover new NPLs arising from last year's strong growth in lending to local governments. However, Schuler said, despite these concerns, Moody's upgraded the bank financial strength ratings of three major Chinese banks.

China's strong economic growth will continue to boost the East Asian banks' revenue growth, she said, adding that the region's banks are well positioned to adopt the Basel III capital requirements given their strong capital bases. While assuring that the deficit crisis in Europe will have a 'limited second order effects' on Asia's banks, that may reduce, instead of reversing, the export and GDP growth, she said the signs that the problems in Europe may renew the credit crunch is of 'greater concern'.

Sovereign credit fundamentals in the Northeast Asia have withstood the world's worst economic meltdown since the World War II, noted Tom Byrne, senior vice president at Moody's Sovereign Risk Group. "External positions have withstood the post-Lehman credit panic and are stronger now, reflecting a robust rebound in exports and resulting in record levels of official foreign exchange reserves for most countries in recent months," he said.

The European crisis is not likely to derail a gradual normalization of monetary and fiscal policies taken in response to the 2008-09 global financial crisis, Byrne said.

by RTT Staff Writer

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