China's city-level commercial banks recorded an average non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at four percent for this year, down from the 15.26 percent level at the end of 2003, according to Jiang Dingzhi, deputy head of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Jiang said smaller commercial banks nationwide, including rural cooperative banking institutions, are developing in a healthier way, with their capital adequacy and assets quality improved substantially.

City commercial banks had their average capital adequacy ratio raised to 8.6 percent this year, up from -1.6 percent at the end of 2003.

Rural cooperative banking institutions reported 183.1 billion yuan (US$24.74 billion) in combined net assets, and their capital adequacy ratio averaged 9.1 percent, as against the -6.8 percent four years ago.

They had made losses for 10 consecutive years but reversed the situation last year, when they garnered 18.6 billion yuan in net profits, compared with 550 million yuan of losses in 2003.

According to Jiang, some city commercial banks expanded their business geographically and looked forward to raising money on domestic equity markets.