Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, January 23, 2003
ICBC Sees Steady Drop in Non-performing Loans
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China's largest commercial bank, enjoyed a steady drop in its non-performing loan (NPL) rate last year, with its total NPLs cut by 37.78 billion yuan (4.57 billion US dollars) or 4.26 percentage points, to 25.52 percent.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China's largest commercial bank, enjoyed a steady drop in its non-performing loan (NPL) rate last year, with its total NPLs cut by 37.78 billion yuan (4.57 billion US dollars) or 4.26 percentage points, to 25.52 percent.
According to sources at the bank's annual working meeting which opened here Wednesday, the bank's new loans since 1999 have remained sound, with a non-performing rate of 0.67 percent.
An ICBC spokesman said that thanks to reforming, innovative and effective management measures in 2002, the bank's business in all fields developed in a rapid and healthy way. Gross profits reached 44.34 billion yuan, increasing 10.38 billion yuan or 30.6 percent over the previous year.
All kinds of deposits in the year increased by 476.8 billion yuan, or 141.6 billion yuan more than the increase in 2001; newly increased loans reached 278 billion yuan, or 35 billion yuan more than 2001. The bank's intermediate and emerging businesses also developed rapidly, with an intermediate income of 5.1 billion yuan, accounting for 9.1 percent of its income from interest margin.
Meanwhile, the bank's other businesses including billing, electronic banking, bank cards and international clearing all enjoyed significant growth.
The spokesman said that in 2003, the bank predicted a gross profit of 51 billion yuan and a net profit of 6.5 billion yuan, with 44.5 billion yuan of the gross profit being used to write off bad debts. The NPLs would be cut further by 55 billion yuan or 3.86 percentage points, to 22.15 percent.