ICBC 2014 net profit up 5%

BEIJING -- State-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the nation's biggest lender, reported a net profit rise of 5.1 percent year on year to 276.29 billion yuan ($45.29 billion) in 2014.

Its non performing loan ratio, however, edged up to 1.21 percent at the end of 2014, an increase of 0.17 percentage points from the end of 2013, the lender said Thursday.

At the end of 2014, non performing loans stood at 92.28 billion yuan, up 19.02 billion yuan from the end of 2013.

The pressure from bad loans is under control this year and the bank set a ceiling target of bad loan ratio at 1.45 percent in 2015, said Yi Huiman, ICBC president.

Business revenue gained 11.7 percent in 2014 from 2013 to 658.89 billion yuan. Among the total revenue, the net interest income gained 11.3 percent year on year to 493.52 billion yuan.

The bank's total assets hit 20.61 trillion yuan, up 8.9 percent year on year.

Shares edged up 0.64 percent to 4.72 yuan on the Shanghai bourse Thursday.