China Construction Bank profits up 3.69 per cent
Broad-based growth particularly driven by net interest income increases
China Construction Bank announced late on Wednesday that its profits rose by 3.69 per cent, a performance in line with analysts’ expectations.
The bank, China’s second most profitable, reported net profits of 138.3 billion yuan, up from 133.4 billion yuan last year.
The profit growth was broad based, with net interest income up 3.25 per cent, net fee and commission income up 1.32 per cent, and some improvements in costs.
In its statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the bank said the reason for the rise in net interest income was that it had absorbed the impact of the interest rate cuts by the People’s Bank of China, which had weighed on interest income throughout 2016, and because it had managed to increase its interest-earning assets.
The improvements in fee and commission income were thanks to a 20 per cent rise in income from credit cards.