BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s Bank of Communications Co Ltd (BoCom) reported a 0.9% rise in 2024 net profit, while warning of margin pressure and bad debt.
Profit was 93.586 billion yuan ($12.91 billion) last year，according to a filing on Friday.
“Net interest margins will continue to face pressure in the short term,” BoCom vice president Zhou Wanfu told a press conference following the publication of the annual results.
“On the asset side, factors like LPR (benchmark lending rate) cuts, adjustments to existing mortgage rates and other policy factors, combined with weak effective credit demand, have intensified industry competition,” Zhou added.
His remarks come as Chinese banks have grappled with weak loan demand amid a slowing economy and a protracted property crisis, which policymakers have responded to by lowering borrowing costs.
BoCom is the first of the nation’s five major state-owned banks to report annual results for 2024.
Also of concern for the bank is the real estate business, which will continue to drag. Vice president Gu Bin said that there will be increasing bad debt among loans to property developers, while risks on retail loans have also risen.
“In 2025, the external environment will be more complicated, challenging and uncertain,” the bank said in the filing.
The bank’s net interest margin (NIM) – a key gauge of profitability – was 1.27% at the end of last year, slightly narrowed from 1.28% at the end of September.
Its non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was 1.31% at the end of last year compared to 1.32% at end of September.
($1 = 7.2497 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Ziyi Tang and Engen Tham; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Kim Coghill)
