Listed banks post strong results

China's listed banks made good earnings overall in the first half and the industry’s asset quality remained basically stable, PricewaterhouseCoopers said on Friday in its latest report.

Based on the interim results of 50 listed domestic lenders, the auditing firm found their operating conditions maintained sound as a whole. The banks achieved a combined net profit of 991.2 billion yuan (US$139 billion) during the January-to-June period, up 7.6 percent compared with a year earlier.

The report studied the top six large state-owned banks, nine joint-stock lenders and 35 city and rural commercial banks, which accounts for 82 percent of the industry’s total assets and 87 percent of net profit.

Net profit of large commercial banks and joint-stock lenders increased by more than 5 and 10 percent, respectively, year on year, while smaller city and commercial players posted diverged profit results depending on regions.

Increased net interest income and fees as well as other non-interest business growth contributed to the good performance of listed banks, said Zhu Yu, managing partner of PwC's financial industry in North China.

By the end of June, the banks saw their assets jump by 5.8 percent compared with the end of 2018, with over 80 percent loans and banking investments.

State-owned and joint-stock banks were relatively stable in terms of their credit quality, while city and rural commercial lenders still face great challenges, the report showed.

In the first six months, banks made great efforts to support the development of micro and small businesses, with loan balance to inclusive financing hitting over 10 trillion yuan by the end of the second quarter.

China's banking industry will usher in greater opportunities and realize sustainable development as the country implements financial inclusion policy and pushes further opening-up to the outside world, PwC said.