BOC profit rises on overseas business

Pedestrians walk past a Bank of China sign at its branch in Beijing, March 26, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Bank's president looks ahead to the lender's further expansion in the global market

Bank of China Ltd recorded 2.52 percent year-on-year growth in profit attributable to equity holders of 93.04 billion yuan ($14 billion), largely due to the continued development of its overseas business and strategic deployment in key regions.

In the first half of this year, the bank's overseas institutions realized profit before tax of $8.57 billion, up 84 percent from the previous year and representing 43 percent of its total profit before tax, according to its 2016 interim results announcement.

Chen Siqing, president of BOC, said on Tuesday: "We'll increase our overseas assets to 30 percent of the total. This target will be realized soon. Next, we are looking to further increase our overseas assets to 40 percent and eventually half of the total in the long run."

The globalization of BOC has been moving forward with deepened opening-up of China, the internationalization of the renminbi and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, which promotes connectivity among Asia, Africa and Europe, he said.

During the last three years, the bank's overseas assets grew by more than $80 billion per year on average with deeper integration in overseas markets. Now, local clients account for 72 percent of its clients overseas.

The bank's cross-border renminbi settlement volume reached 2.04 trillion yuan and its cross-border renminbi clearing volume reached 150 trillion yuan, maintaining first place among peers in terms of market share.

Apart from pushing forward its globalization strategy, the bank also increased its support to key regions including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta region and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao area. In the first half, the key regions recorded a profit after tax of 74.9 billion yuan, accounting for almost 70 percent of the bank's total profit after tax.

As of June 30, the bank's nonperforming loan balance rose 9.2 percent from the end of last year to 142.94 billion yuan. Its NPL ratio increased 4 basis points to 1.47 percent.