Big Chinese Trus Firm Fails To Pay Investors

Missed payments on investment products by a leading Chinese trust firm and a fall in home prices have added to worries that China's deepening property sector crisis is stifling what little momentum the economy has left, Qiaoyi Li, Liangping Gao, and Jason Xue, Ziyi Tang and Ryan Woo reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Zhongrong International Trust Co., which traditionally had sizable real estate exposure, missed payments on dozens of investment products since late last month.

Zhongrong International Trust Co., which traditionally had sizable real estate exposure, missed payments on dozens of investment products since late last month, a senior official told angry investors.

China's $3 trillion shadow banking sector is roughly the size of Britain's economy, and concerns about its outsized exposure to property and risks to the wider economy have grown over the past year, Ziyi Tang, Ryan Woo and Matt Tracy also reported for Reuters.

Reporting for Bloomberg News, John Liu wrote that Zhongrong has no repayment schedule for both its payments but wants investors to be patient, as the Chinese are known to have invented the word “patience.”

Investors fume that Beijing does not have a plan to stave off the collapse of more companies, banks, and state-controlled firms. The central bank's surprise interest rate cuts on the same day will not be enough to arrest the economy's downward spiral, several analysts said.

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