Bank of Communications (BoCom), China's fifth-largest lender,
posted a 33 percent jump in profit last year amid difficulties
posed by the full opening up of the country's financial sector and
the intensifying market competition, the bank said yesterday.
BoCom, a Hong Kong-listed bank with 19.9 percent owned by
Europe's biggest lender, HSBC, recorded a net profit of about 12.3
billion yuan in 2006, while its total assets reached roughly 1,719
billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 20.8
percent.
Based on the standard set by the China Banking Regulatory
Commission (CBRC), the bank's non-performing loan ratio was 2.01
percent, a drop of 0.36 percentage points compared with a year
earlier. Capital adequacy ratio stood at 10.83 percent on December
31.
"The three main regions of focused business development, namely
the Yangtze River Delta, the Bohai Rim Economic Zone and the Pearl
River Delta, contributed to over 80 percent of the group's renminbi
corporate loan businesses and the real loan," BoCom said in a
release yesterday.
Its fee and commission income reached 3.476 billion yuan last
year, a jump of 36.64 percent, as it also reported outstanding
performance in retail business, treasury operation and
international business.
"In 2006, the bank made great efforts to overcome the negative
impact caused by the rising stock market in China," it said.
Given the increase in the number of initial public offerings and
the volatility of treasury positions, BoCom strengthened its money
transfer management and treasury operation to ensure liquidity and
extract higher return from its treasury operation, it added.
(China Daily March 9, 2007)