Bank of East Asia profit rebounds nearly 75% to $2.67b in H1

This increased from $1.53m in the same period last year.

Bank of East Asia (BEA), Limited reported its profit rose by 74.3% to $2.67b, which was linked to the growth in BEA China and BEA Hong Kong.

This is an increase of $1.13b from $1.53b in the same period in 2020, the bank noted in its report.

“The increase in attributable profit was mainly due to a significant decrease in impairment losses in Mainland China and Hong Kong,” the report read in part.

“Credit costs improved as a result of fewer loan downgrades, as well as a positive impact from updates to economic variables in the bank’s expected credit loss model.”

Basic earning per share rose to $0.78 over the same period from $0.39 in 2020.

Net interest income for the group decreased by $591m, or 9.7%, to $5.5b; whilst the net interest margin narrowed from 1.59% to 1.38% under the prolonged low-interest-rate environment.

Moreover, its net fee and commission income went up by 7.3% to $1.54b.

Its net insurance profit was also up by $103m or 38.8%, mainly due to improved results from underwriting and mark-to-market changes on financial instruments.

Taken together, net trading and hedging results and net results from other financial instruments rose by 91.6%, to $806m.

Overall, non-interest income rose by 22.5% to $2.b. Total operating income slipped by 0.7% to $8.41b.