Bank of China, the country's largest foreign exchange bank, said yesterday that its operating profits rose 27 per cent during the first half of this year compared with a year ago.

The bank's operating profits stood at 27 billion yuan (US$3.2 billion) during the January-June period, an increase of 5.75 billion yuan (US$692.7 million) from the same period of last year.

The bank's pre-tax profits rose year-on-year by 84.53 per cent to 12.96 billion yuan (US$1.56 billion), said bank spokesman Wang Zhaowen.

The spokesman said the strong profit gains were mainly because of the rapid growth in renminbi deposits, renminbi loans and non-interest business, and the improvement of asset quality.

By the end of June, the bank's outstanding amount of renminbi deposits had increased by 208.97 billion yuan (US$25.2 billion) compared with the end of last year.

The outstanding amount of renminbi loans increased by 165.4 billion yuan (US$19.9 billion) from the end of last year.

By the end of June, the bank's non-performing loans, by the international standard of five category classification, dropped 3.33 percentage points compared with the beginning of the year to 19.16 per cent.

Since 2000, Bank of China had mapped out an ambitious plan to turn itself into a large international bank, with competitive advantages and relatively good corporate governance within three to five years.

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