Chinese listed banks see juicy Q1 profits on rising interest income

Major Chinese banks experienced soaring profits in the first quarter due to rising interest income, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Wednesday last week.

The net profits of three mid-sized commercial banks, the Bank of Beijing, the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and the Bank of Nanjing, surged more than 150% each in the first quarter compared with the same period last year.

Eight banks saw their first-quarter profit more than double, including the Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, the Minsheng Banking Corp. and the Industrial Bank.

Net income of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's largest lender, rose 76% year on year. The Bank of China, the second largest, was up 78%.

Interest income, the major part of the profit, is still on the rise despite tighter monetary policies, analysts say. Intermediate business such as commission fee income in most banks also more than doubled during the period.

Analysts contributed the explosive increase to relatively lower bases in the same period of last year.

They forecast the second-quarter profits would keep growing quickly, but slower than that of the first quarter.