By Xinhua,
Beijing : China’s banking regulator Thursday disclaimed media report that it has asked Chinese banks to halt interbank lending to their US counterparts.
“The regulator has never, through any channel, issued a statement or told domestic commercial banks not to lend to US financial institutions,” the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in a statement and called the report “irresponsible”.
The South China Morning Post daily of Hong Kong said Thursday CBRC had ordered local banks to halt interbank lending to US banks to avoid possible losses during the financial crisis.
The newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying that the ban applied to interbank lending of all currencies to US banks but not to banks from other countries.
“The South China Morning Post had carried an irresponsible report without seeking verification,” the CBRC statement said.