Bank of China 2016 profit rises 2.58%

BEIJING - Bank of China (BOC), one of the country's big four State-owned lenders, said Friday that its post-tax profit rose 2.58 percent year on year in 2016, with a slightly higher bad loan ratio.

The bank made 184.1 billion yuan ($26.7 billion) in post-tax profit last year, according to its annual report.

Revenue grew 2.48 percent year on year to 485.7 billion yuan.

The bank attributed the profit increase to a better income structure, improved operating efficiency and an accelerating international strategy.

Non-interest income accounted for 36.98 percent of income, up 6.33 percentage points year on year.

Overseas sections earned $12.2 billion of profit before income tax, up 39 percent year on year and accounting for 36 percent of the bank's overall pre-tax profit.

Meanwhile, the bank saw outstanding bad loans expand 15.1 billion yuan year on year to 146 billion yuan at the end of 2016.

The bad loan ratio edged up 0.03 percentage points to 1.46 percent, but the increase was milder than the average growth for Chinese commercial banks.