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BOC Group's Restructuring in Full SwingA senior official of Bank of China (BOC) Group announced Tuesday that the group's restructuring is now in full swing with its 12 member banks in Hong Kong to be merged into a brand new gigantic bank."Restructuring would be our first and foremost task this year," Liu Jinbao, chief executive of the BOC's Hong Kong-Macao Regional Office, told a press conference when delivering a report on the 1999 annual results of the group, which is the second largest banking group in Hong Kong. In order to strive for further prodigious, speedy and promising development, the existing structures, mechanism and management modes of the group need to be improved, Liu said. "This means not only simple organization merger and restructuring, but also a comprehensive reform of the entire management system and operation mechanism," Liu noted. "This would mark a milestone of profound strategic significance in the history of the Bank of China." The restructuring objective is to transform the BOC Group into a bank with more solid strength, strong foundation, more efficient operation, more effective management systems, better quality service and high profitability, he stressed. The group has more than 400 banks and branches in Hong Kong and Macao. According to Liu, the group will concentrate on developing electronic banking and electronic business in 2000, including the Intown Virtual Credit Card, the first Internet card it launched recently, and the iT's Internet Banking to be launched in July. Liu said that amid the sluggish economic activity and fierce competition in the banking sector, the operating income of the bank group in 1999 reached 22.848 billion HK dollars (2.929 billion U.S. dollars) in 1999, growing by 8.27 percent, with operating profit before provisions amounting to 16.853 billion HK dollars (2.16 billion U.S. dollars). However, Liu said that due to the influence of the aftermath effects of the Asian financial crisis, the group's non-performing loans continued to increase and the subsequent provisions made in 1999 reached 11.075 billion HK dollars (1.419 billion U.S. dollars), increasing by 83.6 percent from 1998, and representing two thirds of the profit before provisions.
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