BEIJING, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- China Construction Bank (CCB) announced on Wednesday that its net profit in the first three quarters amounted to 214.11 billion yuan (about 30.86 billion U.S. dollars), up 6.39 percent year on year.
CCB is the first of China's Big Five state-owned lenders to report third-quarter earnings and its financial results bode well for the others.
As of the end of September, the total assets of CCB were 23.35 trillion yuan (about 3.37 trillion U.S. dollars), increasing 5.56 percent year on year, with an annualized ROAA (rate of return on average assets) of 1.26 percent, and an annualized ROE (rate of return on common stockholders' equity) of 16.08 percent.
The bank's operating income in the first nine months was about 500 billion yuan (about 72.07 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 5.94 percent, according to the report.
During the time period, its net interest income was 365.73 billion yuan (about 52.71 billion U.S. dollars), up 9.72 percent year on year, and its net interest margin, a key measure of profitability, stood at 2.34 percent.
This year, CCB has accelerated bad loan disposals and conducted debt-to-equity swaps to lower corporate leverage and fend off systemic financial risks, leading to a slower build-up of NPLs (non-performing loan) at the bank. At the end of the third quarter, CCB's NPL ratio dropped slightly to 1.47 percent, from 1.49 percentage points at the end of the previous year. (Edited by Li Wenxin, liwenxin@xinhua.org)
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