Bank of China Q3 profit falls 1.5%, bad loans rise

[SHANGHAI] Bank of China Ltd (BoC) , the country's fourth-biggest lender by assets, on Thursday reported a 1.5 per cent fall in net profit in the third quarter as bad loans grew.

Profit for June-September was 40.8 billion yuan (US$6.42 billion) from 41.4 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.

The result compared with the 0.975 per cent average growth estimate of four analysts polled by Reuters.

BoC's non-performing loan ratio increased to 1.43 per cent at September-end from 1.41 per cent three months prior.

REUTERS