Bank of China profits up 10 pct for first three quarters

The Bank of China, the country's fourth-largest state-owned bank, said its net profits rose 10.37 percent to 106.36 billion yuan (about 16.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters of the year. The bank's total assets stood at 12.74 trillion yuan as of the end of September, up 7.7 percent compared to the end of last year, while its liabilities rose 7.6 percent to 11.92 trillion yuan, according to the bank's quarterly report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The bank's net interest income grew 13.2 percent year on year to 189.4 billion yuan, while income from commission charges went down 1.8 percent from the same period last year to 49.9 billion yuan, it said. As of the end of June, the bank's capital adequacy ratio stood at 13.16 percent, while its core capital adequacy ratio was 10.38 percent, up 0.18 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points from the end of last year, respectively, the report said. The bank's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was 0.93 percent as of the end of September, down 0.07 percentage points compared to the level at the end of 2011. The bank said it strengthened risk controls in the first three quarters, especially for local government loans, real estate and other sectors, which account for 13.5 percent of the bank's overall outstanding loans. The bank's non-performing loan ratios in those areas were down 0.28 percent, 0.36 percent and 0.99 percent, respectively, from the end of last year. The report said the bank's overseas assets amounted to 3.26 trillion yuan by the end of September, accounting for 24 percent of its total assets. Shares of the bank dropped 0.36 percent to 2.74 yuan per share on the Shanghai bourse on Thursday.