Twenty-one Chinese banks have agreed to buy and sell loans on the country's interbank market, in a first for the nation's debt market, China's central bank said Saturday.

The "loan transfer" plan will improve the ability of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, to control the macroeconomy and enhance banks' abilities to manage risk, PBOC governor Zhou Xiaochuan said in a statement posted on PBOC website.

The 21 banks, including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), signed the agreement in Shanghai Saturday.

The move will improve the liquidity of banks' loan assets, said ICBC Chairman Jiang Jianqing.

ICBC and Bank of Communications, SPDB and Shanxi-based Jincheng Commercial Bank, and Bank of Communications and Sichuan-based Panzhihua Commercial Bank struck "loan transfer" deals Saturday.

The Chinese government fixed this year's target for new loans at 7.5 trillion yuan, after a record 9.59 trillion yuan of new lending in 2009 fueled asset bubble and inflation fears.

China's banks have increased their loans by an average 20 percent annually since 2005 to prop up economic growth.

Total outstanding yuan-denominated loans stood at 45.68 trillion yuan at the end of August this year, up 18.6 percent year on year, according to the PBOC.

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2010)