BEIJING - Chinese banks may need to raise billions of dollars in the next few years as massive lending erodes their capital and leaves them vulnerable to bad debts, a pair of research reports has warned.

Listed banks could raise more than 300 billion yuan (S$60.9 billion) as they come under growing pressure from regulators to beef up their balance sheets, the separate reports by BNP Paribas and Citigroup said.

"With expected fast loan growth and balance sheet expansion in 2009 and 2010, banks will likely need to raise new capital to meet the regulator's higher capital adequacy ratio standards," Dorris Chen, a Shanghai-based analyst at BNP Paribas, wrote in her report.

Chen said 11 banks listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong might need to raise 326 billion yuan.

China has set the capital adequacy ratio - the amount of capital banks must hold against their risk - at a minimum of eight percent.

Meanwhile, Citigroup analyst Simon Ho said in a research report that smaller banks listed in Shanghai may need to find up to 113 billion yuan by 2011 on top of already announced plans to raise a total of 53 billion yuan.

"None of the (Hong Kong-listed) banks presently need new equity but there may be such a need in the next two to three years," Ho added.

Chinese listed banks had capital adequacy ratios of between 8.5 percent and 16.1 percent at the end of September, Ho said.

Several banks told AFP they had no immediate plans to raise capital.

China earlier this week issued a rare warning that it will impose curbs on banks unless they strengthen their defences against bad loans as Beijing tries to put the brakes on record lending.

Those that fail to comply will face "restrictions on market access, overseas investment, and outlets and business expansion," the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said in a statement posted on its website late Monday.

Chinese banks lent a record amount this year following government calls to boost the economy in the face of the global financial meltdown.

New bank loans reached 7.4 trillion yuan (1.1 trillion dollars) in the first half of the year, as banks heeded government calls to pump money into the world's third largest economy to fight off the global slump.

The pace slowed after regulators told banks to rein in lending and step up risk management, while seasonal factors also played a role, economists said.