ICBC reports 65% rise in profit for 2007

HONG KONG: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the biggest bank in the world by market value, posted strong profit growth of 65 percent in 2007, driven by strong growth in fee income and improving margins.

The bank earned 82 billion yuan in 2007, compared with 49.4 billion yuan in 2006. Net fee and commission income jumped 110.4 percent to 34.4 billion yuan. Net interest income surged 37.3 percent to 224 billion yuan as the net interest margin improved to 2.8 percent from 2.65 percent.

ICBC held only $1.23 billion of US subprime mortgage-backed securities till the end of December, 0.1 percent of its total assets. The booked allowance of $400 million will be sufficient to cover the related losses, according to ICBC President Yang Kaisheng.