China Construction Bank (CCB) denied a report by The New York Times that the bank had intentionally hid 3 billion U.S dollars in bad loans before it went public last year.

In a statement posted on its official website last Wednesday, the bank said the accusation was groundless.

In an article on non-performing loans in Chinese banks, The New York Times quoted an unidentified former CCB risk adviser as saying that up to 3 billion dollars in bad loans had been intentionally hidden from outside auditors months before the bank's first sale of stock to public investors in October last year.

In its denial, the CCB stressed that it had strictly followed domestic and international reporting regulations and had released all information in accordance with relevant regulations before it went public.

"Also, our bank has established strict loan-category and categorization procedures. The outside auditor KPMG audited the prospectus, including the fiscal report. KPMG's audit report was unreserved," said the statement.

"The bank is willing to provide accurate information to stockholders and the public, according to market rules and regulations. And the bank will also take legal action against defamation," said the statement.

Meanwhile, analysts described the accusation as illogical.

"In addition to KPMG, Morgan Stanley, as the major sales agent for CCB's IPO (initial public offering), also audited the bank carefully for its own benefit. 3 billion dollars is not a small figure that would be easy to conceal from these leading auditors," an analyst was quoted by the Economic Observer as saying.