BEIJING, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's commercial banks saw their net profit drop by 8.3 percent year on year during the January-September period, with the decline narrowing from 9.4 percent in the first half, said the country's top banking regulator on Tuesday.
According to the official data, the commercial banks earned a combined net profit of 1.5 trillion yuan (about 230 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters, with their average return on assets (ROA) standing at 0.80 percent, down 0.02 percentage points from the previous quarter.
Outstanding non-performing loans (NPL) of these lenders reached 2.84 trillion yuan as of the end of September, up 98.7 billion yuan from the end of the previous quarter, with the NPL ratio reaching 1.96 percent.
The provision coverage ratio, a measure of funds set aside to cover bad loans, stood at 179.9 percent, down 2.52 percentage points from the end of the first half.
According to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), the liquidity coverage of commercial banks amounted to 138.67 percent during the period, while their capital adequacy ratio reached 14.41 percent.
The CBIRC data also showed that by the end of the third quarter, outstanding loans to small and micro businesses extended by the banking sector amounted to 42 trillion yuan.
(Edited by Li Shimeng with Xinhua Silk Road, lishimeng@xinhua.org)
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