Agricultural Bank of China grows steadily in 2018

Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) last year recorded drops in the balance and ratio of its non-performing loans (NPL) as business grew steadily.

The bank continues to implement new technologies, such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, to manage risk, according to ABC, China's third-largest commercial lender by assets.

Its NPL balance dropped 4.03 billion yuan ($600.45 million) year-on-year to 190 billion yuan, and the bank's NPL ratio fell 22 basic points to 1.59 percent.

During the same period, ABC's coverage ratio of allowance for loan impairment losses to NPLs increased by 43.81 percentage points to 252.18 percent, said ABC in its 2018 annual results announcement Friday.

Focusing on supply-side structural reform, the bank optimized its credit structures to allocate more financial resources to industries emerging as new drivers of economic growth, according to the announcement.

As of the end of last year, loans to industries with high growth potential, such as the modern service industries, increased 247 billion yuan year-on-year, or 53.9 percent, while the bank's green loan balance exceeded 1 trillion yuan.

The bank is also seeking solutions to private enterprises' financing difficulties by launching online financing and supply chain financing products.

Aside from expanding funding channels for micro and small enterprises, ABC said it strengthened its micro finance offerings through the application of financial technologies.

More than 20,000 clients had obtained funding from ABC by the end of last year through the bank's Micro Quick Loan, an online product.

Decisions on whether to grant these loans were based on companies' creditworthiness, and the cumulative loan volume exceeded 10 billion yuan.