BEIJING - China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC)'s requirements on commercial lenders will not be loosened even though new loans from the beginning of this year have declined compared to the same period in previous years.

Yan Qingmin, assistant chairman of the CBRC, talked on Sunday about regulatory indices such as the 75 percent loan-deposit ratio. He also mentioned a provision ratio that requires lenders to hold a provision equal to 2.5 percent of their outstanding loans.

CBRC is preparing for higher capital adequacy standards and the implementation of these has been postponed from January to this July, he said.

"The risks among lenders on lendings related to the local government and the property market are still controllable. The pick-up of non-performing loan ratios and the outstanding non-performing loans in the fourth quarter was a 'natural response' to the economic slowdown."

Yan said some local governments are injecting good quality assets into lending projects to solve debt repayment problems with banks.

He denied the possibility that in the future there will be another round of bad asset sales among lenders.

On interest rate liberalizations, Yan said the government should loosen the rein on deposit interest rates first, to restrain deposit outflows from lenders and curb the rampant private lending across the country.