China's banking regulator plans to screen risk control in the banking system comprehensively in the second half of this year to safeguard financial stability amid rising bad-loan ratio and cooling economic growth.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission said it will enhance monitoring of risks in city commercial banks and small financial institutions in rural areas, according to a statement released on its official website on Tuesday.

The screening will cover bill financing, wealth-management products and bond investment, the CBRC said.

Chinese lenders are facing growth pressure and rising fraud cases as data showed the official bad-loan ratio had climbed to 1.81 percent by the end of June — the highest since 2009.

On July 7, Bank of Ningbo said an employee had improperly handled 3.2 billion yuan (US$480 million) worth of short-term debt instruments.

Earlier this year, China CITIC Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China both discovered fraud in their bill financing business, with AgBank warning it could lose 3.9 billion yuan as a result.

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