China CITIC Bank profits up 26%

The China CITIC Bank net profit rose 26.2 percent to 39.2 billion yuan (6.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2013, according to a Tuesday report. By the end of last year, the bank's total assets stood at 3.64 trillion yuan, up 23 percent, while its business income rose 16.9 percent to 105 billion yuan. The bank's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was 1.03 percent in 2013, higher than the national average for commercial banks. The China Banking Regulatory Commission said last Friday that the average NPL ratio gained 0.05 percentage points in 2013 to reach 1 percent. Zhu Xiaohuang, the bank's president, explained that new bad loans were mainly generated from the steel industry from 2011 to 2013. The report also said that China CITIC Bank (subsidiaries not included) had 1,073 branches nationwide