China's Wen says bank monopoly must be broken: state media

The monopoly of state banks has to be broken if cash-starved private enterprises are to get access to capital when they need it, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Tuesday, according to state media.

    We don’t need giant banks.

The manufacturing slowdown in China continues for the third consecutive month prompting a Bloomberg headline China Manufacturing Boosts Case for Easing A Chinese purchasing managers’ index signaled manufacturing may contract for a third month as a slowing economy boosts the case for the government to further loosen credit controls.

Chinese and German firms signed more than $15 billion worth of deals on Tuesday during a visit to Berlin of business and political leaders, Premier Wen Jiabao said."The contracts signed today represent more than $15 billion," Wen told reporters in a joint news conference with Chancellor Angela Merkel in the German capital.The deals included one for 62 A320s from Franco-German aircraft manufacturer Airbus, signed by Airbus chief Tom Enders, China Aviation Supplies head Li Hai and Li Xiaopeng, Industrial and Commerce Bank of China Leasing chairman.

When Cyprus put its banks into lockdown last weekend until... well indefinitely, now that capital controls are established, the main reason was to halt all capital outflows from the henceforth liquidity starved island whose banks will only exist as long as the ECB provides an ever greater dose of liquidity to account for the collapse in deposit funding.

China's premier called the country's big banks a monopoly that needed to be broken to get money flowing to cash-starved private firms, as the nation's economy appears to have skidded to its slowest growth ...

(Reuters) - China's premier called the country's big banks a monopoly that needed to be broken to get money flowing to cash-starved private firms, as the nation's economy appears to have skidded to its slowest growth in three years.