The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has become the world’s most profitable bank having earned a record £5.07 billion in the first half of 2008. With many of the world’s banks suffering as the credit crunch continues to impact on global finances, the Chinese bank’s focus on domestic lending has proved to be astute, with net income up by 57 per cent on the previous year. ICBC were forced to write off around £350 million of bad loans as a result of the credit crunch – a meagre sum when compared to the £27 billion written off by Citigroup.
HSBC were ICBC’s closest rivals, with a net income of £4.2 billion. ICBC now has 170 million personal customers, whilst there are over 16,000 branches within China, as well 112 outside China. The first half of this year saw the ICBC increase lending by 7.1 per cent to £342 billion, with non performing loans accounting for just 2.41 per cent of that figure – down from 2.74 per cent at the end of 2007. Meanwhile, ICBC having been the largest national distributor of insurance policies, mutual funds, government bonds and wealth management products in 2007, ICBC has since also diversified into fund management and financial leasing.
ICBC Becomes World's Most Profitable Bank
ICBC Becomes World's Most Profitable Bank
Fri, 22 Aug 2008
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