Industry insiders attending the 2008 China Finance Forum say that although China's banking sector is not badly affected by the global financial turmoil, banks should further strengthen their capability to deal with risks.

Our reporter Dandan has more.

Since China's financial industry is less involved in the global financial systems compared with the United States and European countries, the ongoing world financial turmoil has so far had a limited effect on the country's banking industry.

Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, says the total assets of China's banking institutions reached up to 61 trillion yuan or 9 trillion US dollars at the end of November this year, up 21 percent year-on-year.

He adds that the banking industry's capability in dealing with risks has also been strengthened.

"The amount of banks that can meet the government's capital adequacy requirements has increased to 193 from only 8 in 2003. The total assets of these banks account for 99.5 percent of those of all the commercial banks in China."

Meanwhile, Liu Mingkang calls on Chinese banks to be cautious about the risks brought about by the domestic and overseas market because the crisis could snowball into a worse scenario.

"Banking institutions should guarantee the stability and security of China's financial system and also protect the depositors' rights and interests."

The National Audit Office is inspecting the shareholding system of some commercial banks in order to mitigate the risk brought about by their foreign exchange assets.

At present, China is implementing proactive financial policies and moderately loose monetary policies, including increasing next year's money supply by 17 percent to tackle the financial crisis.

Jiang Jianqing, chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, says his bank will coordinate with the government to implement its macroeconomic policies.

"We should draw lessons from the global financial crisis and enhance our ability in risk management. We should also improve our credit services."

Dan Dan, CRI News