Profits of China's commercial banks up 11.5 pct in first three quarters

BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's commercial banks raked in total net profits of 1.7 trillion yuan (about 265.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the Jan.-Sept. period, up 11.5 percent year on year, data from the country's top banking and insurance regulator showed.

At the end of September, outstanding performing loans of these banks totaled 159.4 trillion yuan, according to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission.

The balance of the banks' non-performing loans stood at 2.8 trillion yuan, up 42.7 billion yuan from the end of June, while their non-performing loan ratio went down 0.01 percentage point to 1.75 percent.

Local and foreign currency assets of China's banking institutions totaled 339.4 trillion yuan at the end of the third quarter, up 7.7 percent year on year.

The outstanding loans of the banking institutions to micro and small enterprises amounted to 48.9 trillion yuan at the end of September.