Bank of Communications (BoCom), China's fifth-largest lender, posted a 33 percent jump in profit last year amid difficulties posed by the full opening up of the country's financial sector and the intensifying market competition, the bank said yesterday.

The Bank of Communications Chairman Jiang Chaoliang greets reporters during a news conference announcing the bank's 2006 annual results in Hong Kong March 8, 2007. [Reuters]

BoCom, a Hong Kong-listed bank with 19.9 percent owned by Europe's biggest lender, HSBC, recorded a net profit of about 12.3 billion yuan in 2006, while its total assets reached roughly 1,719 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 20.8 percent.

Based on the standard set by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the bank's non-performing loan ratio was 2.01 percent, a drop of 0.36 percentage points compared with a year earlier. Capital adequacy ratio stood at 10.83 percent on December 31.

"The three main regions of focused business development, namely the Yangtze River Delta, the Bohai Rim Economic Zone and the Pearl River Delta, contributed to over 80 percent of the group's renminbi corporate loan businesses and the real loan," BoCom said in a release yesterday.

Its fee and commission income reached 3.476 billion yuan last year, a jump of 36.64 percent, as it also reported outstanding performance in retail business, treasury operation and international business.

"In 2006, the bank made great efforts to overcome the negative impact caused by the rising stock market in China," it said.

Given the increase in the number of initial public offerings and the volatility of treasury positions, BoCom strengthened its money transfer management and treasury operation to ensure liquidity and extract higher return from its treasury operation, it added.

(China Daily 03/09/2007 page14) 

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