China's commercial banks earnings rise in Q1

BEIJING - China's commercial banks saw faster growth in profits for the first quarter of the year, with a stable bad loan ratio, data showed.

China's commercial banks made combined net profits of 522.2 billion yuan ($82.2 billion) in the first three months, up 5.86 percent year-on-year, data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission showed.

The growth was 1.25 percentage points faster than the same period last year.

By the end of March, the non-performing loan ratio of commercial banks stood at 1.75 percent, almost flat compared with the end of 2017.

Outstanding bad loans from commercial banks amounted to 1.77 trillion yuan by the end of first quarter, 68.5 billion yuan more than the end of 2017.

The commission recently rolled out a set of measures to rein in risk in the banking sector.

In a rule released earlier this month, the commission limited commercial bank's risk exposure.

The rule will oblige banks to reduce reliance on interbank business and channel more capital into the real economy, the commission said.