THE country’s banking regulator has told commercial banks it will penalize them if they don’t spread next year’s lending evenly through the year, in the latest sign that the government considers administrative controls important in keeping the economy from overheating.

Last week, an assistant governor at the China Banking Regulatory Commission, Yi Gang, met with 21 of China’s policy banks and major commercial banks and ordered them to control lending quarter by quarter.

In recent weeks, the government has leaned on banks to limit their lending, for instance, instructing them to maintain a similar level of net loans outstanding at the end of December as they had at the end of October. Several bankers described the move as a freeze on new lending, and say some customers are being refused loans or credit lines. Authorities say the request is a rough guideline and they have no intention of seeing banks stop lending.

It is unclear how much impact the lending measures so late in the year might have on China’s high-octane economy.

But analysts say that administrative controls — rather than interest rate increases — have emerged as the government’s main weapon in the immediate term to keep lending from inflaming the economy too much in the final months of the year.

A trend toward lower interest rates in the United States has made it more difficult for the People’s Bank of China to raise interest rates without inviting more speculation that the exchange rate of the yuan will rise more quickly. China has raised interest rates five times so far in 2007.

The memo about next year’s lending doesn’t offer much indication of how much more authorities want to see bank loans grow. Instead, the memo appears aimed at keeping lending patterns more even throughout the year.

Banks have been instructed to allocate 30-35 percent of their full-year loan allotments within the first quarter, 60-65 percent by the end of the first half, and 80-85 percent by the end of the third quarter. Any remaining elements of the quota could be lent in the fourth quarter.

Banks will have some leeway beyond those numbers but excessive loan growth will result in penalties that require banks to set aside funds in central bank bills or special deposits.

(SD-Agencies)