Ping An Bank chalks up 30% profit growth in 2012

PING An Bank Co, the Shenzhen-based joint-stock bank, reported a 30 percent increase in net profit last year, boosted by trade financing, small loans and credit card business.

The banking unit of China's second-biggest insurer achieved net earnings of 13.4 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) in 2012, the lender said in a report released yesterday.

Interest income rose 31 percent to 33 billion yuan, while net interest margin narrowed from 2.56 percent in 2011 to 2.37 percent in 2012 due to a more liberal interest regime in China.

Non-performing loan ratio was 0.95 percent last year, up 0.42 percentage points from a year earlier, because of deteriorating asset quality in Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou, Ping An said in the report.

The average non-performing loan ratio of commercial banks was 0.95 percent last year, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Non-interest income of Ping An rose 54 percent to 6.7 billion yuan or 17 percent of its total income, up from a growth of 15 percent in 2011, indicating a slight improvement in the lender's income structure.

Ping An merged with Shenzhen Development Bank last year after Ping An Insurance, the parent company, bought additional 20 billion yuan of shares in Shenzhen Development.

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