The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said it is allocating a 30 percent risk reserve to cover possible losses in its subprime assets.

Jiang Jianqing, chairman of the country's largest commercial bank, said at a meeting over the weekend that in 2007 the ICBC held subprime assets of $1.2 billion.

He said the bank's subprime holdings remained stable but risk reserves had been increased in the fourth quarter after supervisory departments issued warnings on possible deterioration of the subprime crisis.

In its third quarter report, the ICBC said it held subprime mortgage bonds of $1.228 billion, for which it had allocated 429 million yuan ($61 million) in risk reserves.

Of all the major commercial banks, Bank of China (BOC) and the ICBC are believed to be the top two investors in the US subprime mortgage market.

In its half-year report, the BOC said it held subprime mortgage assets of $8.97 billion, of which 75.38 percent had AAA rating and 21.7 percent had AA rating. By the end of June, the BOC had allocated risk reserves of 1.15 billion yuan to cover possible losses from the subprime assets.