Bank of China (BOC) has set aside US$832 million to cover bad debts in the third quarter, a move that cut its profit gains to 3.21%, the South China Morning Post reported. BOC has been the mainland lender hardest hit by the global financial crisis, with impairment losses for the first nine months totaling US$3.8 billion, which exceeds the money it had set aside for crisis-related securities by 28%. BOC’s third-quarter profit was US$2.6 billion, a 3.21% increase year-on-year, but down from a record 43% year-on-year profit growth for the first half of the year. Despite BOC’s higher exposure to bad loans overseas, some analysts believe the bank’s asset quality prospects are better than other Chinese banks’ due to BOC’s lower exposure to the ailing domestic commercial property market.
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