|
BIZCHINA> Top Biz News
![]() |
|
Lending surge lifts ICBC first-half net
By Wang Bo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-21 08:05 Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world's largest bank by market value, reported a 2.8-percent growth in first half net profit on brisk increase in lending and fee-based revenue.
The bank's net profit edged up to 66.7 billion yuan in the first six months, while operating income dropped by 4.4 percent from a year earlier, to 148.1 billion yuan for the same period. "Dwindling interest margin deteriorated the bank's revenue, while decent fee-based income and lending increase helped ensure profit growth," Fu Lichun, a banking analyst at Southwest Securities, said. In response to the government call to support the economic recovery, the bank has advanced 864.5 billion yuan in new loans, with 449.9 billion yuan flowing to State-backed projects. By the end of June, the bank's loans and advances totaled 5.44 trillion yuan, up 19 percent from the end of 2008, it said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. But net interest income, which accounted for 78.4 percent of the lender's revenue in the first half, declined 11.9 percent to 116.04 billion yuan, as net interest margin contracted to 2.25 percent from 2.95 percent by the end of 2008.
"The pressure of narrowing loan margin might not be that big for the bank, as part of its lending has gone to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)," Fu said. In the first half, ICBC gave out 477.3 billion yuan in new loans to SMEs, growing 26 percent from a year earlier, higher than the average 19 percent growth in corporate lending. The bank saw its non-performing loan ratio drop to 1.81 percent at the end of June from 2.29 percent at the beginning of the year. (For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
|
霍城县| 开封市| 潮安县| 南木林县| 兰坪| 织金县| 修武县| 鄂托克旗| 新乐市| 甘谷县| 全州县| 平度市| 沁源县| 蓬溪县| 余姚市| 安西县| 新泰市| 东乡族自治县| 乌什县| 信丰县| 疏勒县| 林州市| 太保市| 南城县| 修文县| 赣榆县| 古蔺县| 保定市| 新余市| 马尔康县| 鄂托克前旗| 毕节市| 根河市| 南昌县| 稻城县| 博客| 余江县| 新邵县| 佛坪县| 大兴区| 丹阳市|