BEIJING, (Reuters) – China’s financial regulators asked major banks to speed up approvals of mortgages for the fourth quarter. Bloomberg News reported Friday that unidentified sources had been cited by Bloomberg News.

According to the news agency, lenders are also permitted to ask permission to purchase assets that were backed by residential mortgages. The move was done amid concern about how the crisis of liquidity and debt at China Evergrande Group might spread to other developers.

China is increasing property market restrictions since 2020. New measures have been introduced to monitor and manage the developers’ debt.

However, with the economy slowing and construction starting to slow, there has been speculation about whether or not it will relax those restrictions as in past downturns.[ECILT/CN]

Fearful of a persistent bubble in property prices, Chinese leaders will likely continue to impose tough restrictions on the sector. However, they could ease down some tactics as necessary, analysts and policy source told Reuters.

Yi Gang (guvernor of People’s Bank of China) told 24 financial institutions that at the end of September, he wanted to maintain the healthy and steady development of China’s real estate market as well as protect the legitimate rights of consumers.

Reuters asked the PBOC and China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to comment but did not receive any response.

Chinese regulators are trying to enforce financial discipline without causing social unrest. To ease the country’s liquidity, they have asked state-backed businesses to purchase Evergrande assets.