China CITIC sees lending pace slowing

BEIJING, April 29 (Reuters) - The pace of new lending at CITIC Bank Corp Ltd (0998.HK) will slow over the rest of 2009, Chen Xiaoxian, chief executive of the country's seventh-largest lender, told reporters on Wednesday.

Chen did not go into details. Total lending by Chinese banks in the first quarter reached 4.58 trillion yuan, close to the government's minimum target for the whole year of 5 trillion yuan.

Speaking at the same news conference, Assistant President Cao Guoqiang said the bank's net interest margin was bottoming out and was unlikely to fall further as long as there was no further cut in official interest rates.

Indeed, Cao said the margin may widen again later in the year.

The executives were speaking a day after the banking flagship of China's top financial conglomerate, CITIC Group, reported that net profit last year rose 61 percent to 13.32 billion yuan ($1.95 billion). (Reporting by Langi Chiang and Alan Wheatley; Editing by Nick Macfie)