China’s big state-owned banks saw robust growth in net profits for the first three quarters of 2022, despite the adverse impacts of repeat Covid lockdowns in major cities including Shanghai and Beijing.
The collective net profits attributable to shareholders of China’s big state-owned banks stood at 1.03 trillion yuan for the first three quarters of 2022, according to quarterly performance reports released by Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), Bank of China (BOC), Bank of Communications (BOCOM), China Construction Bank (CCB), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) as of 28 October.
These net profits mark an increase of 6.47% compared to the same period of 2021.
Both CCB and ICBC saw net profits of over 200 billion yuan, at 247.282 billion yuan and 265.822 billion yuan respectively. PSBC’s net profits were the smallest out of the big six, coming in at 73.849 billion yuan, yet it also saw the largest percentage increase, with a YoY rise of 14.48%.
All six of the big state-owned banks have stepped up credit extension in 2022, following a push from regulators to support China’s real economy amidst renewed Civid-Related restrictions.
ABC, CCB and ICBC all saw double digit growth in their assets over the first three quarters of the year, with ABC coming in first following a rise of 16.37%.
ICBC, CCB and ABC are currently the largest of the big state-owned banks in terms of assets, at 39.55 trillion yuan, 34.30 trillion yuan and 33.83 trillion yuan respectively as of the end of September.
As of the end of September the collective loan balance of the big six state-owned banks was 92.05 trillion yuan, for growth of 11.30% compared to the end of last year. ICBC had the largest lending and advances balance at 22.30 trillion yuan, while ABC’s loan balance was 18.8 trillion yuan, for growth of 12.9% compared to the end of last year.
