Standard Chartered suspends some metals financing in China - sources

HONG KONG/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Standard Chartered has suspended new metal financing to some customers in China, three sources familiar with the matter said, as banks and trading houses review their exposure after a probe into trade financing at the port of Qingdao. A client of Standard Chartered was told by the bank that it had temporarily stopped giving "inventory financing" to new deals. The bank would not roll over existing deals when they expired, the Standard Chartered client said. Another source based in Singapore, with knowledge of the situation, also said the bank had halted financing deals. "It's official. Right now they don't renew financing deals...and stop financing new deals," said the source, who trades physical copper and ships it to China. A Standard Chartered spokeswoman said the bank was monitoring the situation at Qingdao, but declined to comment on whether the bank had restricted its lending. It was not clear if the suspension was temporary or how many clients were affected in China. At least one other Western bank with operations in China is reviewing its exposure to copper and aluminium financing, a source with direct knowledge said. Concern over the situation has extended to domestic banks. A Chinese state-owned bank had sent a team from head office to Qingdao to investigate trade financing problems, a source with direct knowledge of the situation said. (Reporting by Melanie Burton in Sydney, and Polly Yam, Xiaowen Bi and Hongmei Zhao in Hong Kong; Editing by Ed Davies)