China Calls Banks to Break Up Monopoly 

(MENAFN - Qatar News Agency) Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said that China's biggest banks are "a monopoly that needed to be broken up". This was the first time that top leadership acknowledged the monopoly of State-owned banks, following last month s announcement of a pilot project to reform the financial sector in Wenzhou, an eastern coastal city with a tradition of entrepreneurship, (XINHUA) reported.

On criticizing the country's economic structure, Wen said, "Let me honestly say that our banks are making a profit too easily.", adding that borrowers find it "very difficult" to get loans from other than the biggest banks.

According to the website of the state-run radio network late on Wednesday, Wen said late on Thursday during his visit in East China s Fujian province, that the banks' control of lending is limiting the growth of independent businesses in the world's second largest economy.

Last year, the country s big four banks had a combined profit of over 600 billion yuan, despite a backdrop of slowing economic growth.
China's economy has been getting slower as it recorded a growth of 10.4 percent in 2010, 9.2 percent in 2011 and is expected to slow even more this year.