The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's largest lender, on Thursday reported a 66 percent year-on-year increase in its net profit in the first nine months of this year.

From January to September, ICBC's net profit rose to 64.1 billion yuan (US$8.56 billion) under international accounting rules.

The impressive profit growth is attributed to stable gains on loans and rapidly expanding intermediate business, said Jiang Jianqing, the bank's Board Chairman.

The bank's non-performing loan ratio dropped from 3.79 percent at the end of 2006 to 3.06 percent at the end of this September, according to ICBC.

In the first three quarters, the leading commercial bank made more than  348.7 billion yuan in loans, a 10.3-percent growth on the same period of last year. The total included 142.4 billion yuan in loans for individuals, up 24.6 percent, and 63.1 billion yuan in loans for small-sized enterprises, up 44 percent.

The total assets of ICBC stood at 8.6 trillion yuan by the end of September, up 14.5 percent from the the end of last year.

ICBC was simultaneously listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong in October last year, raising US$21.9 billion, exceeding the previous record of US$18.4 billion by Japan's NTT DoCoMo in 1998.

The total market value of ICBC surpassed 2.5 trillion yuan by the end of September, making it the world's biggest listed financial company. It was named as the most profitable bank in Asia, according to a list compiled by HK Asia Week magazine called "Top 300 Asia Bank".