By staff reporter Song Yanhua

(Caijing.com.cn) The National Audit Office said it uncovered improper lending at six commercial banks in 2008, with the irregular loans totaling more than 36 billion yuan.

The state auditor said in a statement on its Web site on June 24 that the six banks, including the big four listed lenders – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications - improperly lent a combined 21.5 billion yuan in land reserve and mortgage loans, or extended loans to unqualified property developers.

Some of the loans were extended to developers who did not hold sufficient cash to meet the minimum capital requirement for obtaining credit to purchase land.

The banks, which also include Citic Bank and China Merchants Bank, lent another 10.7 billion yuan to projects that had not won regulatory approval.

There were also 4.4 billion yuan worth of loans misused because of the banks' lack of post-lending supervision, the NAO said.

It added that the banks have recovered improper loans worth 27.3 billion yuan to date.

1 yuan = 14 US cents

Full article in Chinese: http://www.caijing.com.cn/2009-06-24/110188727.html