China banks slow lending due to quota limits-paper

SHANGHAI Dec 2 (Reuters) - Chinese banks have slowed their pace of lending after almost depleting this year's quota and as regulators urged them to control credit expansion toward the year-end, the official Shanghai Securities News reported on Thursday, citing unidentified Shanghai banking officials.

Some branches of Chinese banks have already stopped lending, and are starting to prepare for next year's business, the newspaper said.

China's new lending totalled 6.88 trillion yuan ($1 trillion) during the first 10 months of this year, compared with the annual target of 7.5 trillion yuan, leaving little room for credit expansion in December, the newspaper said. ($1=6.66 Yuan) (Reporting by Samuel Shen and Melanie Lee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)