China's top banking regulator on Friday warned of growing risks to the country's financial system as a result of an unprecedented expansion in new loans and urged the country's lenders to improve their internal management.

The statement by Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, may signal a more assertive stance from the body in the build-up to a top-level Communist party meeting scheduled for November that will set the country's economic agenda for the coming year.

Chinese financial institutions extended Rmb8,185bn ($1,199bn) in local currency loans in the first eight months of this year, an increase of 164 per cent from the same period in 2008, a credit binge analysts say has been facilitated by a serious relaxation in lending standards.