Chinese Bank Nets Profits of Three Billion YuanThe Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) collected profits of 3.013 billion yuan (about 367 million US dollars) in the first half of this year, an increase of 1.512 billion yuan over the same period last year.The bank's rate of non-performing loans also dropped 2.18 percentage points from the beginning of the year, with the bank's overall asset quality largely improved, said Jiang Jianqing, president of the ICBC, at the bank's national work conference held here Wednesday. Jiang said that this year the bank has focused its efforts on credit restructuring, actively developing high-quality credit market while withdrawing from inferior credit market, which has resulted in positive changes in industrial, regional and client credit structures. In the first six months of this year, the ICBC's various loans increased by 132.4 billion yuan, of which 85.7 billion yuan was used to support infrastructure construction and hi-tech industries, while 78.4 billion yuan was channeled to the housing sector. At the same time, the bank's total deposits in Renminbi, the local currency, increased by 208.5 billion yuan, up 11 billion yuan over the same period last year. He said that the bank's new businesses have been developing rapidly. The volume of its e-banking businesses exceeded 1.9 trillion yuan; the volume of its bills trading department reached 44 billion yuan, with a profit of 78 million yuan; while its international settlement businesses finished a volume of 35.7 billion U.S. dollars, with a record profit of 275 million U.S. dollars. |
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