Bank of China's profit after tax up by 22%

Bank of China recorded a profit after tax of RMB101.28 billion in the first three quarters, an increase of 22.09% compared with the same period of 2010.

The Bank achieved a profit attributable to equity holders of RMB96.30 billion, an increase of 21.52% compared with the same period of 2010.

As at the end of September, The Bank’s total assets and liabilities amounted to RMB11.53 trillion and RMB10.80 trillion, an increase of 10.23% and 10.43% respectively compared with the prior year-end.

In the first three quarters of 2011, BOC’s basic earnings per share reached RMB0.35, an increase of RMB0.05 compared with the same period of 2010. Return on average total assets was 1.23%, an increase of 0.06 percentage point compared with the same period of 2010.Net interest margin improved by 6 basis points compared with the same period of 2010.

Non-interest income represented 31.74% of total operating income, up by 1.34 percentage points compared with the same period of 2010, continuing to lead Chinese banking peers.

In the first three quarters of 2011, non-interest income of the Bank reported an increase of RMB16.29 billion or 26.48% to RMB77.78billion, of which net fee and commission income amounted to RMB50.83 billion, an increase of RMB9.48 billion or 22.94% compared with the same period of 2010, mainly driven by the rapid growth in settlement fees, credit commitment fees, agency commissions and consultancy and advisory fees. Other non-interest income amounted to RMB26.95 billion, an increase of RMB6.80 billion or 33.76% compared with the same period of 2010, of which the revenue on precious metals business and net trading gains grew by more than 100%

The Bank achieved steady improvement in operating efficiency. Cost to income ratio was 30.14%, a decrease of 1.20 percentage points compared with the sameperiod of 2010.

As at the end of September, the Bank’s customer deposits amounted to RMB8,538.31 billion, an increase of 11.21% from the prior year-end. Domestic RMB customer deposits has increased by RMB720.8 billion or 11.36% compared with the prior year-end, and the growth rate is 1.20 percentage points above industry average. The improvement of the Bank’s market share of corporate deposits ranked the first among large banks, and the amount of new deposit from financial institutions ranked the second among large bank peers.

In the first three quarters of 2011, the Bank’s domestic branches conducted cross-border RMB settlement of over RMB530 billion, 3.2 times of total volume for the full year of 2010. The market share was around 30%, covering overseas customers from over 100 countries and regions. 24 overseas branches of the Bank have launched cross-border RMB settlement business, with total volume amounted to RMB770 billion, 3.5 times of total volume for the full year of 2010.

As at the end of September,the balance of non-performing loan totaled RMB61.88 billion, a decrease of RMB0.59 billion from the prior year-end. Non-performing loan ratio dropped by 0.11 percentage point from the prior year-end to 0.99%, while NPL coverage ratio increased by 26.34 percentage points to 223.01%.In the first three quarters of 2011, the Bank’s impairment losses on loans and advances amounted to RMB16.77 billion with a credit cost of 0.38%. The Bank proactively enhanced risk control of key areas. The NPL ratios of local government financing vehicles, overcapacity industries and real estate industrywere all below the overall NPL level of the Bank.