Banks optimize assets to counter low rates

Chinese commercial banks made great efforts to optimize the structure of their income, assets and liabilities amid increasing pressure of a downward economy and shrinking net interest margins, according to the interim results of several major banks for the first half of 2016.

China Construction Bank Corp, the country's second largest commercial lender by assets, announced a nearly 10 percent drop in its interest income during the first six months of this year. By contrast, its net fee and commission income rose 5.6 percent and other types of non-interest income surged 140 percent.

The bank optimized its credit structure in an effort to deal with the fall in interest rates. Its chairman Wang Hongzhang said on Friday: "In regard of credit structure readjustment, we put great emphasis on large companies, projects and cities, including high-end clients."