BEIJING, Nov. 15 -- China's commercial banks saw their non-performing loan (NPL) ratio drop 0.01 percentage points to 1.61 percent at the end of the third quarter from the previous one, official data showed.

The NPL balance of the commercial banks reached 3.2 trillion yuan (445.68 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of September, 24.4 billion yuan more than that at the end of June, data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration showed.

The performing loan balance of the commercial banks was 197.1 trillion yuan at the end of September, and the quality of credit assets of the commercial banks remained stable, the administration said.