BEIJING: Bank of China (BOC), one of China’s major state-owned banks, on Friday reported a 1.14-percent year-on-year increase in net profits in the first half of 2015.
Net profits stood at around 90.75 billion yuan (14.18 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months, the lender said.
The growth rate slowed sharply compared to the 8.1-percent gain in profit recorded in 2014. The slowdown for conventional banks has come amid the rising popularity of Internet finance services offered by companies such as Alibaba and Tencent.
Offshore business made a significant contribution to its profit increase, with the pre-tax profits of all the BOC overseas subsidiaries hitting around 4.65 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.46 percent from the same period last year.
The total assets of overseas subsidiaries reached around 795.98 billion U.S. dollars, up 6.83 percent from the end of last year.
The bank’s non-performing loan ratio stood at 1.41 percent at the end of June.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country’s largest bank, on Thursday reported a tiny 0.7-percent year-on-year increase in net profits in the first half of 2015.
