His government has ordered Bank Negara to redefine non-performing loans to get many of them off the books.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

Nearly 60% of all Romanian bank loans in 1997 were non-performing, says the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

ECONOMIST: Romania

The ratio of non-performing loans at north-eastern bank branches is the highest in the country, which is itself so overwhelmed with bad debts that the big state-owned banks need regular injections of capital in order to avoid insolvency.

ECONOMIST: The other China

Typically, about 2% of the loans at a healthy bank will be non-performing - defined usually as those that are not serviced for at least three months.

CNN: Page 2

Vasco Moreno of Fox-Pitt, Kelton, a stockbroker, says that fully 22%, or euro16 billion, of the bank's gross lending fell into the category of non-performing or problem loans at the end of 2000.

ECONOMIST: An unbecoming Italian merger

Takugin's profitable business is likely to end up with Hokuyo Bank, a healthy mid-sized institution in Sapporo, while most of the non-performing loans will be inherited by the Deposit Insurance Corporation, an emergency pool funded mainly by other banks.

ECONOMIST: Japanese banks

The Reserve Bank of India has said that mid-market banks are not facing systematic problems with non-performing loans and has made its concerns clear.

FORBES: Asset Quality Worsening At India Banks

Tokai Bank said this week that it will decide in December how big a chunk of its remaining non-performing loans to write off.

ECONOMIST: Japanese banks

No outsider knows the percentages of non-performing loans at the big four banks of China, including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank.

FORBES: Is China The Next EU?

In Korea, for instance, while the largest lenders creak under non-performing business loans built up during the decades of rapid industrialization, a relative upstart like Shinhan Bank (est. 1981, No. 61 in the 500) can plot bold moves with its clean balance sheet.

CNN: The Asiaweek Financial 500