Bank Of China Profit Up 8.2%

Bank of China Ltd. said Thursday first-quarter net profit rose 8.2%, thanks to healthy growth in net-interest income.

Net profit for the three months ended March 31 was 39.82 billion yuan (US$6.42 billion), up from CNY36.80 billion a year earlier, said the country’s largest foreign-exchange bank.

The result was slightly below the average CNY40.03 billion net profit forecast from five analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

Bank of China, which is majority-owned by the Chinese government, said its net-interest income rose 10.5% to CNY66.96 billion.

Non-interest income from credit cards, wealth-management product sales and international trade-related settlement and clearing increased 12% to CNY38.49 billion. Non-interest income accounted for 36.50% of its total operating income, an increase of 6.67 percentage points from a year earlier, it added.

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