China Citic Bank Corp, the mainland's eighth-largest lender, warned of slower loan growth after the central bank raised interest rates for the fourth time this year on Tuesday.
Citic Bank was adjusting its assets to ease the impact of the rate rise on profitability, chairman Chen Xiaoxian said yesterday in a post-results briefing.
'The interest rate increase will more or less affect our loan growth, but it should have little impact on our profitability and loan book,' he said.
The bank on Wednesday said first-half net profit rose 82.4 per cent to 3.22 billion yuan on an increase in intermediary income, faster loan growth and a wider interest margin. Net interest income rose 53.26 per cent to 11.25 billion yuan as loans leapt 21 per cent to 535.51 billion yuan.
Mr Chen said the growth drivers in the second half would be wealth management, corporate banking and credit cards.
'Our credit-card business had become profitable since the end of last year,' he said.
The bank issued 77,200 cards in the first half, a 108.5 per cent increase from a year earlier, rasing the total to more than three million.