China's biggest banks hit by margin squeeze amid bad loan pressure

China's $52 trillion banking industry is facing an increasingly difficult year, with its largest lenders cutting loan rates while bad debt is piling up amid a property crisis

China’s biggest banks, including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., reported slowing earnings growth and eroding margins after being enlisted by Beijing to help stave off a deeper slump in the world’s second-biggest economy.
 

ICBC, the world’s biggest bank by assets, reported net income grew 4.9%, the slowest in two years, in the first half of the year, while earnings at Bank of China Ltd. and China Construction Bank Corp climbed 6.3% and 5.4% year-on-year, respectively. ICBC’s net interest margin slid to 2.03% from 2.12% and CCB’s narrowed to 2.09%, while BOC’s was unchanged at 1.76% from a year