Banking on more trouble: Local banks fear housing, credit crunch to last a year

'The famous Chinese curse tells enemies that they ought to live in interesting times. For local banks, 2007 was interesting. It was also a financial mess. Driven by much higher provisions for loan losses and by bad-loan write-offs — the bulk of which bankers said were caused by the collapse of land development, housing sales, and commercial and real estate development — most banks lost money.'