China Construction Bank Q1 net profit up 16 pct

BEIJING - China Construction Bank (CCB), the country's second-largest state-owned bank, on Friday reported a 15.66-percent year-on-year growth in net profit in the first quarter of 2013.

Net profit reached 59.58 billion yuan (9.58 billion US dollars) during that period, the CCB said in a statement filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Net interest income rose 12.44 percent year on year to 92.31 billion yuan in the first quarter, while net income from commissions and service fees went up 18.9 percent year on year to 28.89 billion yuan, said the statement.

The bank's non-performing loan ratio remained at 0.99 percent at the end of March, the same level recorded at the end of 2012.

The capital adequacy ratio (CAR), which reflects a bank's capacity to cushion potential losses with its capital, stood at 13.63 percent.

China's largest banks must keep their CAR no less than 9.5 percent by the end of 2013, the country's bank regulator said last year.

As of the end of March, the CCB saw total assets climb 5.04 percent from three months earlier to 14.68 trillion yuan and liabilities grow 4.93 percent to 13.67 trillion yuan, according to the statement.