The debt capital market — whether conventional commercial
banking, corporate bond issuance or shadow
banking — in the PRC1 has been growing in the past
years. It is estimated that outstanding bank loans and
bond debt among non-financial companies in Mainland
China2 had reached about U.S.$12 trillion3 at
the end of 2013, the equivalent of more than 120 percent
of GDP.4 , 5 It is also estimated that China’s corporate
debt could hit U.S.$13.8 trillion in 2014, surpassing
that of the U.S. as the largest in the world.6 Total
corporate bonds outstanding increased more than
tenfold to RMB8.7 trillion (U.S.$1.4 trillion)7 at the
end of January 2014 since the end of 2007.8