ICBC net falls on higher bad loan provisions

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd, the world's largest lender by assets, posted its first quarterly decline in profit since 2009 as provisions for bad loans more than doubled.

Net income slipped 3.1 percent to 55.3 billion yuan ($8.9 billion) in the three months ended Dec 31 from a year earlier, a Hong Kong exchange filing showed on Thursday. That trailed the 58 billion yuan average estimate of 26 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

A weakening Chinese economy is pushing up nonperforming loans just as interest-rate cuts threaten to pare lenders' margins and deregulation boosts competition. ICBC joined Agricultural Bank of China Ltd and Bank of China Ltd in reducing its dividend payout ratio for 2014.