Big four banks' interest margins down

Net interest margins of China's four largest State-owned commercial banks fell 8 basis points year-on-year on average in the first half of 2019, as a result of the increase in deposit costs triggered by interest rate liberalization and the lowering of lending rates in support of the real economy, bankers and analysts said.

During this period, the decline in the net interest margin, the ratio of net interest income to interest-earning assets, of the country's "big four" banks ranged from 1 basis point to 19 basis points.

The NIM of Bank of China Ltd dropped by five basis points year-on-year to 1.83 percent. To stabilize the margin, BOC has optimized the structure of its assets and liabilities and taken measures to control deposit costs, said Wu Fulin, executive vice-president of the bank.