ICBC to continue its debt-for-equity swaps

Deals can reduce the high level of indebtedness of Chinese companies

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd, China's largest State-owned commercial bank, will continue to push the debt-for-equity swap program this year, a senior executive of the bank said, dismissing market rumors of suspension of the program by the country's major lenders.

The program is one of China's solutions to address the country's high corporate debt level, estimated to have reached to nearly 170 percent of the country's GDP by economists.