This paper clarifies the difficulties associated with green credit implementation by investigating 240 Chinese bank managers. We identify nine industry and organisational barriers. Our results provide evidence that different perceptions exist among managers of Chinese banks with different ownership structures and market shares. Due to their size, rural commercial banks suffer from higher organisational barriers than joint-stock commercial banks or state-controlled commercial banks. The training of employees and implementation costs of green credit also explain differences among Chinese bank managers’ perceptions. The findings provide important insight into promoting green credit implementation, particularly in identifying the challenges banks currently face according to their different ownership structures.