Previously worried about granting loans, now worried about renewing loans. Over a trillion yuan in loans coming due, banks facing a major "test" on the asset side.

"The loan interest rate has dropped to around 2%, but customers are still choosing to issue bonds for financing." Lin Xin, a corporate business professional at a securities bank in East China, told reporters that the biggest headache this year is not "unable to lend out loans", but "unable to retain loans". Following the expiration of a large amount of deposits, the banking industry is now facing a concentrated expiration of a huge amount of loans - according to calculations by institutions, the scale of loan expiration in 2026 is expected to exceed 104 trillion yuan. Recent surveys of several securities banks, city commercial banks, and rural commercial banks by reporters have found that frontline banking professionals are already feeling the pressure: on one hand, there is an increase in difficulties in renewing existing loans, and on the other hand, high-quality companies are accelerating their shift towards issuing bonds for financing.