China’s top banks are stepping up their lending activities in the US as large US companies diversify their funding sources and seek to penetrate more deeply into the world’s second-largest economy.

Chinese banks’ share of US syndicated lending has risen to 6.1 per cent of the total market so far in 2012, up from 5.1 per cent last year, according to data from Dealogic. So far this year, the total value of syndicated loans from Chinese banks into the US has reached $51bn.

Liao Qiang, Chinese banking analyst at Standard & Poor’s, said: “Many global banks have been deleveraging as a result of the 2008 global financial crisis and the debt crisis in Europe. Their retreat in lending markets provides opportunities for Chinese banks to deepen relationships with the multinational companies and steadily increase their international presence.”