(China) – The Bank of China’s (BOC) mainland business has produced a 1 percent lift in its first quarter operating profit following improved risk management.China’s biggest foreign exchange bank has seen its overseas branches deliver US$133 million in pre-tax profits for the quarter, part of total domestic profits achieved of 5.89 billion yuan (US$711.6 million), a marginal 1 percent climb over last year’s comparable result, following provisions for non-performing loans (NPL).
Its’ domestic NPL ratio at the end of March remained a problematical 23.53 percent, down barely 0.59 percentage points from the end of last year.