Attempts by state banks to cut costs and improve internal controls are showing concrete results, with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) becoming another big state bank to post rising profits.
The ICBC yesterday announced a pretax profit of 3.94 billion yuan (about HK$3.68 billion) for last year, against 3.39 billion yuan in 1998, according to China News Service.
ICBC's improved result came after the Bank of China announced on Monday that earnings had surged to 11.5 billion yuan last year from 3.2 billion yuan.
ICBC said deposits were up 32.9 billion yuan at the end of last year from a year earlier, while outstanding loans were 245.3 billion yuan higher.
Meanwhile, the Agricultural Bank of China also reported an improved financial position, the China Securities News reported yesterday.
No figures were given.
