(22 August 2016 – China) China Merchants Bank Co. reported a jump in profits and progress in controlling risks, including a paring back of the bank’s so-called shadow-lending book.
China’s sixth-biggest bank by market value posted a 7.1 percent gain in net income in the second quarter, the biggest increase in more than a year, to 16.9 billion yuan (A$3.3 billion).
The Shenzhen-based bank’s bad loan ratio grew at a slower pace in the second quarter and its debt “receivables” dropped by 22 percent in the first six months of the year to 558 billion yuan.
Merchants Bank boosted its bad-loan coverage ratio — money set aside for future soured credit — to 189 percent of existing bad loans at the end of June from 183 percent three months earlier.