China Construction Bank net profit up 14%

China Construction Bank, the country's second-largest state-owned bank, said Sunday its net profit rose 14.13 percent year on year to 193.18 billion yuan (30.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012. The bank's business revenue reached 460.75 billion yuan last year, an increase of 16.03 percent from 2011, according to a report the bank filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The bank attributed the profit gain to a modest expansion of interest-bearing assets and its strengthening cost management during the period. Net interest income grew 15.97 percent year on year to 353.2 billion yuan. Affected by the year's tempered economic growth and regulatory policy changes, revenues from commission charges added a mere 7.49 percent to 93.51 billion yuan, it said. At the end of last year, the bank's capital adequacy ratio came in at 14.32 percent, while core capital adequacy ratio was 11.32 percent, up 0.64 percentage point and 0.35 percentage point, respectively, from the end of 2011. The bank's outstanding non-performing loan (NPL) stood at 74.62 billion yuan, with the NPL ratio at 0.99 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from the level at the end of 2011.