Safe as houses?

Chinese house prices are falling steeply, presenting the country's banks with a major challenge. Are their newly souped-up credit risk management capabilities ready to cope with a possible downturn in the home loan market? Kathleen Kearney reports

China's banks have been staunch allies in their attempts to help the Beijing government cool domestic property-related lending and investment in the past three years. They did this as part of efforts to prevent the formation of a large property bubble. Co-ordinated action in the form of new regulations, along with lending restrictions, had only limited success, until turmoil struck the financial