China's state-owned commercial banks have recorded 226.8 billion yuan (29.5 billion U.S. dollars) in overseas assets by the end of last year, according to an official with the banking watchdog.

The amount is about one percent of the total assets of 22.5 trillion yuan (2.9 trillion U.S. dollars) reported by the country's state-owned commercial banks at the year-end of 2006.

The country's state-owned commercial banks had set up 47 branches and a number of representative offices by 2006 in 29 countries and regions including Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Australia, the Republic of Korea and Brazil, said Cai Esheng, deputy chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission during the 10th China Beijing International High-Tech Expo.

The commission encourages domestic financial institutions to "go out", said Cai, adding that overseas investment could help them improve their management and risk control while press them for financial innovations.

Three state-owned Chinese banks already rank among the world's top 10 in terms of market capitalization, according to a top 100 bank list from the Boston Consulting Group, Cai said.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Stock Code: 601398)ranks second after Citibank, while the Bank of China (Stock Code: 601988 )and the China Construction Bank  (Stock Code: 939 )rank sixth and seventh.

State-owned commercial banks took up more than half of the total assets registered with the county's banking sector. The non-performing loan ratio of the state-owned commercial banks stood at 7.09 percent at the end of 2006, 1.52 percent lower than the previous year.