“The shadow currency in question comes in the form of bankers’ acceptance notes, or BANs, paper issued by banks that are, in some cases, as good as cash. BANs, which are essentially IOUs in the form of bank checks, are being used as a form of ‘wildcat’ currency to increasingly finance speculation as banks and corporations alike are running short of cash. The issuance of BANs has more than doubled to 1.6 trillion yuan ($261 billion) from 636 billion yuan a year ago. State-owned banks love them because stringent statutory requirements force them to maintain high loan-to-deposit ratios, but since BANs are recorded off the books, they can increase their leverage without appearing at risk.”
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