Agricultural Bank of China says H1 profits up 20 pct

Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), the nation's fourth-largest lender by asset value, on Wednesday reported that its profits jumped 20.8 percent year on year to 80.52 billion yuan in the first half.

The bank attributed the profit increase to the steady growth of brokerage business, income from the interest rates gap and lower operating costs, according to its semi-annual report.

By the end of June, its asset value totalled 12.9 trillion yuan (2.05 trillion U.S. dollars), an increase of 10.5 percent compared with the same period last year.

The non-performing loans (NPL) ratio stood at 1.39 percent at the end of June, 0.16 percentage point lower than at the beginning of the year.

The capital adequacy ratio was 12.02 percent, 0.08 percentage point higher than that of January.

Revenues from commission charges rose 4.8 percent year on year to 38.9 billion yuan with brokerage businesses, including credit cards, insurance agents and other financial agent businesses, posting robust expansions.

The bank also beefed up its financial services in county-level regions. By the end of June, it issued 110 million bank cards in those areas, registering a profit of 33.4 billion yuan, up 28.8 percent year on year, 7.4 percentage points above the industry average.