China's four asset management companies (AMCs) have either recovered or written off slightly over one-fifth of the non-performing assets they held by the end of June, the banking watchdog said Friday.

The Huarong, Great Wall, Cinda and Orient AMCs, which were set up in 1999 to manage a mountain of non-performing loans transferred from China's Big Four state banks, had disposed of RMB717.42 billion (US$88.46 billion) worth of bad assets, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) reported.

By the end of last month, the AMCs recovered RMB148.46 billion (US$18.31 billion) in cash.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2005)