The commodity price rout has hammered the profits of mining and energy companies across Asia - and bankers are wary.

As lenders of large licks of capital to companies that built new mines and wells approved during the glory days of the commodities boom, the punishment meted out to metals and energy prices has sharpened worries about corporate cash flows and the ability to meet loan repayments. The S&P GSCI, a broad based index of commodity prices, has slumped 21% from its June highs, underscoring the hit that many dirt diggers and oil drillers have taken to their bottom lines.

The fallout from weaker commodity prices has begun to reverberate across the banking industry. Malaysian bank CIMB Group (1023.MY) revealed in its third quarter earnings that profit from its Indonesian business had fallen 28% year-on-year in part due to weak commodity prices. Standard Chartered (2888.HK/STAN.LN), which is one of the more prominent international banks across Asia, attributed a rise in its loan impairments in the third quarter to the slump in commodity prices.

To be clear, the decline in commodity prices is not expected to lead to a 'Lehman moment' for Asia banks. Some mining and energy companies in Asia are state-backed and that means the prospect of their loans going sour is negligible. However, the exposure of some bank's balance sheets to financially stretched commodity producers adds to investor concerns about slower economic growth, like in China, and the flow-on effects as the Federal Reserve possibly starts raising U.S. interest rates in 2015.

It's probably no surprise that Chinese banks are a top of mind concerns for investors. The bankruptcy of Haixin Iron & Steel Group earlier this month, making it the largest steel mill to go under, underscores the potentially fatal combination of too much debt and overcapacity haunting many industries in the world's second largest economy. According to Standard Chartered analyst John Caparusso, solvency conditions - leverage, cash flows and liquidity - are "the weakest and deteriorating the fastest in China".

China Minsheng (1988.HK) tops the list of Chinese banks with commodity exposure. About 9% of the Beijing-based bank's loan book is exposed to mining companies, according to Standard Chartered. That doesn't mean all those loans will go awry, but investors will want to be certain the bank's management have adequately provisioned for loans that may become non-performing. While China Minsheng's non-performing loan ratio was a low 1.04% in the third quarter, it has climbed from 0.85% at the end of 2013. The bank's provision coverage ratio fell to 200% in the third quarter, down from about 260% at the end of last year.

Exposure to commodity producers is also an issue for banks in India and Indonesia. While there are cause for concerns about the impact of lower prices on cash flows, Standard Chartered believes companies in these two countries may be better positioned to handle the tough times. While Indian commodity firms have high debts, they also enjoy better cash flows on average than companies in China. Meanwhile, natural resource companies in Indonesia enjoy better profits and cash flows on average than competitors in China.

Indonesian lenders Bank Negara Indonesia (BBNI.ID) and Bank Mandiri (BMRI.ID) have a sizeable exposure to commodity producers. Banks in the world's fourth most populous nation also confront threats posed by the recent decision to hike fuel prices, after the new government cut subsidies, and raised interest rates. The combination of these two challenges, combined with weaker commodity prices, could lead to a rise in non-performing loans.

Bank Negara Indonesia has about 8% of its business lending book exposed to the oil, gas and mining industries, according to its third quarter results. This ranks as the bank's third largest industry exposure behind retailing and wholesaling, and agriculture. While the bank's non-performing loan ratio of 2.2% in the third quarter is around half what it was in 2010, the non-performing loan ratio among corporate borrowers has inched higher over the past year. However, the bank's coverage ratio - which measures a bank's ability to absorb losses from non-performing loans - has increased to 129% from 123% in 2012.

Meanwhile, Bank Mandiri expanded its corporate lending to the mining, oil and gas by nearly 18% in the third quarter compared to the same time last year. This was the fastest pace of lending to an industry in the corporate book, followed by 16% growth in loans to the electricity sector. Loans to the mining, oil and gas industries accounted for about 5 % of its business lending book. However, Bank Mandiri appears to be strongly positioned with a low non-performing loan ratio of around 2.2% and a coverage ratio of 157%.

Among India's banks, Allahabad Bank (532480.IN) was identified by Standard Chartered as having a large exposure to commodity producers, with around 6% of its lending to companies in the sector. The bank reported a 49% slump in second quarter profits as higher taxes bit hard. There have been concerns about Allahabad's asset quality, which may be reflected in the fact the stock trades at 0.5 times book value, yet the bank has shown signs of improvement. Provisions for bad loans were cut, while net non-performing assets fell to about 3.5% from approximately 3.8% at the same time last year.

All four banks do share one positive attribute. They all have access to a large slab of fairly stable funding. The banks have the advantage of having loan-to-deposit ratios of less than 100%. That means retail deposits, which are low cost and not likely to be moved quickly, are greater than the value of loans made to borrowers. That's important because in times of liquidity squeezes, often caused by an outflow of capital from the country, funding can become difficult to access and expensive.

While commodity exposure should not make or break a bank, it's another issue that investors in Asia's banks should take into consideration.

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Email: thomas.streater@barrons.com

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