Bank of China, the country's largest foreign exchange bank, said Thursday its international settlement business grew more than 50 percent in the first quarter, China Daily reported Friday.

The bank said it handled 79.7 billion US dollars worth of international settlement business during the January-March period,an increase of 26.7 billion US dollars or 50.31 percent from a year ago.

In March alone, the bank handled 29.7 billion US dollars worth of such business, a record in a single month.

During the three months, the bank also conducted trade-related financing business worth 4.1 billion US dollars, an increase of 87.63 percent.

The fast growth in the two businesses helped bring in more income for Bank of China.

The bank earned 1.5 billion US dollars from the two businesses during the first quarter, an increase of 39.78 percent.

Spokesman Wang Zhaowen said the two businesses were important segments of the bank plans to develop in the coming years.

"Development of non-interest business is vital for increasing the competitiveness of Bank of China, " he was quoted by the paperas saying.

The bank said earlier it earned 17.4 billion yuan in operating profit during the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 28 percent compared with the same period last year.

By the end of March, the bank's non-performing credit ratio was14.84 percent, a drop of 1.44 percentage points.

Source: Xinhua