This paper examines the relationship between banking lending and urban economic growth, basing on the data of 19 Chinese cities in which foreign banks have been established and set up branches. This study first of all divides banks into three types: foreign banks, city banks and other banks, then try to explore the impacts of the three types banks on urban economy. We also study foreign direct investment and city competitiveness to see how the two factors effect the banking lending and urban growth relationship. Our results show that foreign banks' lending exhibits an overwhelmingly positive association with the economic growth of Chinese cities. And FDI in each city further enhances the foreign bank loan's effect. Our results also reveal that foreign banks' loan effects are significantly enhanced by city competitiveness while other banks are not. To our surprise, city banks, as local banks of Chinese cities, do not show any positive relationship with local economy.