Bank of China approves $140 billion of credit for BRI projects

BEIJING -- The Bank of China (BOC) had approved more than $140 billion of credit and funded over 600 major projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by the end of June, according to BOC semi-annual report released Friday.

The bank, as one of the country's big four state-owned lenders, has seen steady growth in its business performance and continuous improvement in its brand value in the first half of this year, according to Liu Liange, president of the BOC.

As of the end of June, its revenue came in at 276.7 billion yuan (about $39 billion), up 10.02 percent year on year, while after-tax profits expanded 5.08 percent to 121.4 billion yuan.

The BOC will continue to step up efforts on clearance and dissolution of non-performing loans, the report said.

Its annualized non-performing loan ratio dropped 0.41 percentage points in the first half of the year, compared with the same period last year.