Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest bank by assets, has posted a forecast-beating 14.9% rise in third-quarter earnings. The gains came from higher profit margins on its loans and a reduction in its provisions for bad loans. ICBC was the third of the big four Chinese banks to report better-than-expected profits, joining Bank of China (BOC) and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC). Earnings at ICBC were CNY62.44 billion in the three months to September, up from CNY54.36 billion a year ago. Net interest income rose 15.9% to CNY107.31 billion. Total loans at the end of September were CNY10.9% higher than the CNY8.64 trillion at the end of last year. Bad-loan provisions for the three-month period amounted to CNY5.7 1 billion, a drop of 33.8% from last year. The bank said it had CNY74.75 billion of non-performing loans, a decrease of CNY373 million from the end of June. The non-performing loan ratio was 0.87%, 0.07 percentage points lower than at the end of last year. Bank of Communications’ third-quarter earnings growth was also driven by net interest income, which went up 14% from the year-earlier quarter to CNY30.71 billion. The bank’s net interest margin remained flat at 2.6% at the end of September as the interest rate cuts by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) hindered growth. The bank’s non-performing loan ratio at the end of September was 0.87%, an increase of 0.01 percentage points from the beginning of the year. The bank made a provision of CNY3.33 billion in the third quarter, a decrease of 6% from a year ago. China’s first privately-owned lender, Minsheng Banking Corp, said its third-quarter profit rose 30.7% to CNY9.76 billion from a year ago.

China Construction Bank (CCB) posted an annual 12% rise in third quarter net profit of CNY51.9 billion a on wider net interest, but its results trailed two of the big four domestic banks. Its net profit in the first nine months topped CNY158.2 billion. But CCB’s growth in net income in the third quarter was slower than the Agricultural Bank of China’s 16% and Bank of China’s 17%. CCB’s interest income grew 18% in the third quarter annually to CNY91.3 billion, while net fee and commission income fell 2% to CNY20.7 billion. CCB’s bad loans rose CNY2.5 billion in the quarter to CNY72.9 billion. China Merchants Bank’s net profit in the third quarter rose an annual 16.6% to CNY11.4 billion. Net profit reached CNY34.8 billion in the first nine months as net interest income rose 11% annually in the third quarter to CNY22.1 billion. China Citic Bank posted a 22% drop in profit to CNY7.6 billion. Citic Bank is stepping up its provisioning against potential bad loans, which analysts said is likely to weigh on its profit next year. The bank’s provision ratio rose by 0.17 percentage point to 1.84% at the end of the third quarter from the second quarter, but the figure is still lower than the bank’s peers and the regulatory requirement. Citic bank reported a 14.7% decline in net profit in the third quarter from a year ago to CNY7.85 billion after making a CNY4 billion provision for current and potential bad loans, a significant increase from the CNY231 million it set aside in the second quarter. China’s top five banks, ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and BoCom reported a combined net profit of CNY202 billion in the third quarter with an average annual growth rate of 14%.

The last three of the 16 China-listed lenders reported earnings for the third quarter that were mostly in line with market estimates. Industrial Bank reported a 41% increase in third-quarter net profit from a year ago to CNY9.24 billion while net interest income rose 43% to CNY18.36 billion. Bank of Beijing reported a 28.3% growth in net profit to CNY3.57 billion, and earnings at Shanghai Pudong Development Bank rose 27% to CNY8.93 billion. Net interest income went up by 17.4% to CNY18.37 billion, and net fee and commission income grew by 37.4% to CNY2.23 billion.