BOC Posts 6.2 Pct Pre-tax Profit Growth for 1st Half YearThe Bank of China (BOC) group announced Thursday the pre-tax profits of its commercial banking business rose 6.2 percent, or 296 million HK dollars (38 million US dollars) in the first half of this year to 5.05 billion HK dollars (648 million US dollars).By the end of June 2001, its total customer deposit amounted to 667.6 billion HK dollars (85.6 billion U.S. dollars), representing an increase of 1.56 percent over the same period last year, the group said in a statement. Thanks to its efforts in improving loan collection and strengthening credit risk management, the group's non-performing loans for the first half year declined by 17.31 billion HK dollars (2.2 billion U.S. dollars), or 31.9 percent, to 36.96 billion HK dollars (4.7 billion U.S. dollars). Its non-performing ratio by the end of June 2001 dropped to 10. 5 percent, as compared with 15.3 percent at the end of June 2000, and 11.6 percent at the end of last year, the group said. BOC's total provisions for the first half-year were 2.33 billion HK dollars (298.7 million U.S. dollars). Outstanding provisions for bad and doubtful loans totaled 17.94 billion HK dollars (2.3 billion U.S. dollars). Meanwhile, Liu Jinbao, chief executive of Bank of China's Hong Kong and Macao regional office, announced at a press conference that the bank's restructuring of its Hong Kong operations went on smoothly and the "appointed time" for its merger of ten banks was set on October 1, 2001. The first banking business day for the merged bank, Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited, will be October 3. "We are confident the new merged entity will be able to maximize its efficiency and profitability," Liu said. |
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