Three Chinese state-owned banks, Bank of China (BOC), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and China Construction Bank (CCB) made a combined net profit of 1.88 billion yuan per day in 2015, according to their recently released annual reports. 

However, this is the worst performance of the "big three" Chinese banks in the past ten years. In recent years, the banks often saw double-digit growth; this year, in contrast, the growth rate in net profit for ICBC and CCB both dropped below 1 percent.

The annual report shows that BOC's after-tax profits saw a year-on-year increase of 1.25 percent to 179.4 billion yuan, which breaks down to 492 million yuan per day. ICBC saw a year-on-year increase of 0.5 percent to 277.7 billion yuan, or 760 million yuan per day, and CCB had a year-on-year increase of 0.14 percent to 228.1 billion yuan, earning 625 million yuan per day.

It is hard to estimate whether profit growth in 2016 will be positive or negative, said ICBC governor Yi Huiman at a meeting on March 30. It will depend on both internal and external factors.

The external factors include development trends of the macro economy, as well as the impact of revised national policies. Internal factors include the banks' own innovations and changes, as well as risk management and control, Yi added.

Despite the decline in net profit growth for all three banks, ICBC's total assets reached 22.21 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.8 percent from last year. Following that is BOC, with assets amounting to 16.82 trillion yuan, up 10.26 percent, and CCB, with assents reaching 18.35 trillion yuan, representing an increase of 9.59 percent.