Bank of China said Thursday it recorded total bad asset disposal of 72.4 billion yuan at the end of 2003.

The bank recovered 28.9 billion yuan in cash from those disposals, it said in a statement.

The cash recovery figure surpassed the bank's lower and upper targets for 2003 of 20 billion and 25 billion respectively, the statement said.

Cash recovered from bad debt disposals in the bank's overseas branches reached US$337 million in 2003.

Bank of China and China Construction Bank are under heightened official pressure to reduce their massive bad debt loads since being chosen to lead a state-owned bank pilot reform program. The moves are aimed at helping the banks restructure into shareholding companies ahead of planned public listings.

The pilot program will eventually be extended to Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China .

The government kicked off these efforts with a US$22.5 billion cash injection from China's foreign exchange reserves into each of the banks at the end of 2003.

China's bank regulator has since issued guidelines aimed at improving the two banks' management standards in line with the restructuring plan.

The pilot program will eventually be extended to two other state-owned commercial banks, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China .

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