China bails out two state banks with US$45b

SHANGHAI: China has injected US$45bil into two big state banks in a long-awaited bailout of the debt-ridden industry, a major step towards strengthening the Achilles’ heel of the world’s sixth biggest economy. 

The government used a tenth of its massive foreign exchange reserves to pour fresh capital into Bank of China and China Construction Bank, which split the funds evenly, officials and bank executives said.