Ten commercial banks in China have released their interim results as of Wednesday, reporting a combined net profit of 551.95 billion yuan ($83.72 billion).
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Bank of China (BOC), China Merchants Bank (CMB) and Industrial Bank Co posted the highest profits.
ICBC reported net profit of 153.7 billion yuan, up by 2 percent over the same period last year.
BOC reported the fastest growth of profit at 11.45 percent year-on-year, with first-half profit of 103.7 billion yuan.
CMB achieved net profit of 39.25 billion yuan in the first half, up 11.43 percent year-on-year. Next came Industrial Bank Co with net profit of 31.6 billion yuan and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank with 28.16 billion yuan.
According to ICBC, a deepened transformation and innovation to further enhance business vitality and development momentum contributed to its profit.
Thanks to ICBC's efforts in further implementing its retail, asset management and investment bank strategies, new savings deposits in the first half ranked first in the industry, it said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.
The net increase in the number of personal clients was 16.86 million, with aggregate personal financial assets of 12.67 trillion yuan.
BOC said that the increasingly rapid development of its Internet finance business led to rapid growth in the volume of its mobile banking business and clients' stickiness.
In the first half of 2017, the bank's substitution ratio of e-banking channels for outlet-based business transactions reached 94.36 percent, while its e-channel transactions reached 89.65 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.88 percent year-on-year, it said.
International business also contributed to these banks' profit growth.
For example, CMB launched an enterprise-level online settlement campaign to implement companies' "going global" strategies. As of the end of June, CMB had processed offshore international settlements of more than $155.9 billion and served nearly 40,000 enterprises registered in many countries and regions around the world, according to domestic news website people.com.cn.
Huaxia Bank has set up 731 branches in 48 countries and regions along the Belt and Road route.
In the first half, Huaxia Bank processed $33.3 billion in international settlements while trade financing amounted to $6.2 billion, according to a recent report by sdjsb.bjd.com.cn.
ICBC said that its net profit generated by overseas and controlling institutions increased by 21.4 percent year-on-year, which was a higher growth rate compared with the bank's average.
