BEIJING -- China's trust industry maintained a shrinking trend in the third quarter of this year, data shows.

Total trust assets slid by 2 percent year-on-year to 20.44 trillion yuan ($3.2 trillion) as of the end of Q3 with the assets structure further improving, according to the China Trustee Association (CTA).

Industrial and commercial enterprises continued to take the lion's share of total trust investment in the period, reflecting the role of trust funds in supporting the real economy.

As of the end of Q3, outstanding investments by trust funds into the real estate sector saw a year-on-year contraction of 18.13 percent to reach 1.95 trillion yuan.

The decline can help trust companies to pump in more funds into key industries that see economic transformation and upgrade, and better serve the real economy, said Zhou Ping, a CTA researcher.