The banking industry's aggregate non-bank China exposures as at end-December was $545.7 billion, on the $535.3 billion figure recorded in September, the Monetary Authority says. The figure stood at $219.6 billion in June, which was based on the previous reporting scope.

On-balance sheet exposures amounted to $430.5 billion or 4.7% of the industry's total assets in December, while the two new items jointly accounted for 59.8% of the aggregate non-bank China exposures.

In September the authority introduced new reporting items covering exposures to other Chinese entities, those not specified under the previous reporting criteria, and exposures to non-Chinese entities where the credit is granted by authorised institutions for use on the Mainland. As such, the reported exposures increased greatly in the third quarter compared to the second one.