IN BRIEF (Page 13)

BOC profit in H1 expands 28%

Bank of China Ltd (BOC), the nation's third-largest lender by assets, on Wednesday reported a 28 percent year-on-year increase in first-half profit as income from loans and fees climbed.

The lender's net income rose to 66.5 billion yuan ($10.4 billion) from 52 billion yuan a year earlier. BOC's non-performing loan ratio in June dropped to 1 percent, 0.1 percentage point lower than the start of the first half, while the provision coverage ratio for non-performing loans increased by 20.62 percentage points to 217.29 percent during the same period.