Japanese banks have been more aggressive than their Chinese peers in expanding abroad since the global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund said in a report that also highlighted differences in their approaches.
Banks in both countries have used their strong balance sheets to seize growth opportunities overseas as European and U.S. lenders retrench from Asia, the IMF said in its Global Financial Stability Report. Yet Japanese banks expanded on a larger scale and diversified their businesses, making them less vulnerable to funding issues, the report showed.
Driven by limited growth prospects at home, Japan's three biggest banks increased overseas loans to more than 31 percent of their total advances in 2013 from 18 percent in 2009, the IMF said. Chinese lenders expanded loans abroad to 9.2 percent from 6.1 percent in the period, it said.