(Yicai Global) Sept. 20 -- Many banks in Beijing have recently raised first-home lending rates. The financial market department of the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said today that it supports them in their decision to do so, as they made it in line with policy guidance.

Banks themselves made mortgage interest rate adjustments according to money market changes and their needs in capital management of assets and liabilities under the background of strengthening regulation on the Beijing real estate market and an overall rise in the interest rates on the market, the department said.

As the entities implementing real estate credit policy, the banks can increase personal housing loan interest rates to curb the excessive growth of demand and consolidate the effect of Beijing's real estate regulations, the department said.

Some banks cut down the size of personal housing loans by raising mortgage interest rates to increase credit support for the real economy, the department said.

Banks in Beijing have recently upped first-home mortgage interest rates with large banks generally hiking them to 5 percent above benchmark interest rates and some small and medium-sized institutions put them above the benchmark by 10 percent or more. Rates 5 percent to 10 percent over benchmark interest rates for first-home mortgages have become common in the country's key cities that regulate real their estate markets.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission Beijing Office and the central bank's financial market department jointly requested that banking financial institutions within their jurisdiction carry out self-examinations of their personal businesses and consumer loans, focusing on reviewing funds illegally put into real estate.