BOCHK reports 17.33 pct increase of annual profit

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, March 23, 2004

BOCHK reports 17.33 pct increase of annual profit

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Bank of China Hong Kong (Holdings) Limited (BOCHK) announced Monday that it registered in 2003 a profit attributable to shareholders of 7.96 billion HK dollars (1.02 billion US dollars), an increase of 17.33 percent compared with 2002.

Xiao Gang, chairman of the company said Monday at a press conference that BOCHK has made significant improvement in asset quality. Non-performing loan (NPL) ratio dropped to 5.78 percent, compared to 7.99 percent a year ago, as a result of stronger credit portfolio, better risk control, effective debt collection and an increase in write-offs. In the last 18 months, the company has reduced its NPL ratio by over 3 percentage points.

Xiao said "we believed 2004 is going to be another exciting year in a more positive sense, given the improved market sentiment,the benefits of CEPA and other conducive factors. "

He Huangbei, vice chairman and chief executive of the companysaid "we have set forth key strategic priorities. The first targetis to increase focus on wealth management and consumer credit through establishing a comprehensive wealth management platform and expanding the bank's consumer credit portfolio."

He said the second target is to expand corporate and treasuryservices to increase profitability while keeping risks at a manageable level.

The other priority tasks include enhancing the banks services in the Chinese mainland to capture the opportunities arising from CEPA, optimizing operational efficiency through bank-wide efficiency enhancement programs as well as implementing sound riskmanagement by building a risk focus culture of business development and implementing appropriate risk management process.

BOCHK was appointed as the clearing bank for personal RMB business in Hong Kong at the end of 2003 and its personal RMB banking services were launched in late February, 2004.

BOCHK, one of the three banknote issuing banks in Hong Kong, is also one of the leading commercial banking group in Hong Kong in terms of assets and customer deposits, with nearly 300 branchesand about 450 ATMs and other delivery channels in Hong Kong.

Source: Xinhua

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