Measurement and Analysis of the Competitiveness of China Commercial Bank’s Loan Market

Abstract EN

China’s economy presents a new normal of speed changes, structural optimization, and power conversion.

Deepening supply-side reforms and controlling financial risks are two prominent themes of current economic work.

With the economic growth slowing down and the financing environment tightening, the credit risk of the banking industry is being exposed more quickly.

This article uses a structured method and an unstructured method to measure the competitiveness of China commercial bank credit market.

The structured method uses the HHI (Herfindahl–Hirschman Index), and the unstructured method uses the Lerner Index.

This article compares the sample banks’ 2008–2015 industry loan total HHI and Lerner Index.

The results of HHI and Lerner Index are basically the same, which indicate that the competitiveness of the China commercial bank credit market is generally at a low level.

However, the Lerner Index has a clear upward trend after 2014, which indicates the possibility of increased competition in the credit market.