VCG
China's two major commercial lenders, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Bank of China (BOC), posted stable net profit increases last year, financial reports showed Friday.
ICBC's net profits attributable to shareholders stood at 313.4 billion yuan (44.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, an increase of 4.9 percent year on year, breaking the 300 billion mark for the first time.
Business revenue of ICBC rose by seven percent to 776 billion yuan, and total assets stood at 30.11 trillion yuan at the end of 2019, an increase of 2.41 trillion yuan compared with the previous year.
ICBC President Gu Yan said that the bank has become better able to prevent and control credit risk in recent years and showed sound fiscal performance with provision coverage nearly reaching 200 percent in 2019.
At the end of last year, the non-performing loan ratio of ICBC decreased by 0.09 percentage points to 1.43 percent. The provision coverage ratio surged by 23.56 percentage points to 199.32 percent. The capital adequacy ratio increased by 1.38 percentage points to 16.77 percent, according to its financial report.
In addition, ICBC said it has introduced measures in the fight against the coronavirus, including 150 billion yuan in financing support and over 30 billion yuan in loans for related enterprises.
A BOC building in Shanghai. /VCG
The BOC's net profit growth rose by 4.06 percent to 187.4 billion yuan last year, and its revenue increased by 9.17 percent to 550 billion yuan.
The total assets of the BOC reached 22.77 trillion yuan at the end of last year, an increase of 7.06 percent, and its liabilities totaled 20.79 trillion yuan, up 6.4 percent compared with the same period last year.
Meanwhile, the non-performing loan ratio of BOC dropped by 0.05 percentage points to 1.37 percent, decreasing for three consecutive years.
BOC President Wang Jiang said that the main driving factors for the improvement are steady growth in business revenue and the accelerated development of strategic key areas. For example, individual financial business revenue increased by 7.61 percent year on year.
The BOC said it continued to increase credit support for inclusive finance and private enterprises, with loans issued to private enterprises reaching 1.96 trillion yuan last year.
The BOC also increased investment in the fintech sector. The bank's investment in information technology totaled 11.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.15 percent.