BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Bank of China Ltd (BoC), the country’s fourth-biggest lender by assets, on Friday reported a 13.2% increase in third-quarter net profit.
Net profit for the July-September period was 50.71 billion yuan ($7.93 billion), up from 44.79 billion a year earlier.
The bank said its net interest margin – a key indicator of bank profitability – slipped to 1.75% at the end of September from 1.76% at the end of June.
It reported a non-performing loan ratio of 1.29% compared to 1.3% at the end of the previous quarter.
Bank of China has estimated that China’s commercial banks are likely to have posted third-quarter profit growth of around 3%.
But the sector will be pressured by declining loan rates, loan-loss provisioning requirements and challenges faced by non-interest-earning businesses, the bank said in a quarterly banking report.
($1 = 6.3970 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Cheng Leng, Zhang Yan and Engen Tham; editing by Jason Neely)
