Chinese banks post slower profit growth

Agricultural Bank of China (60128.SH, 1288.HKG) and Bank of China (601988.SH, 3988.HKG), two of the country’s biggest banks, said this week they had the lowest yearly profit growth since they IPOed, The Wall Street Journal reported. Agricultural Bank of China, China’s largest rural lender, reported profits of US$23.33 billion (RMB145.1 billion) for last year, up 19% from 2011, narrowly missing analyst consensus estimates. Bank of China posted a profit of US$22.4 billion, a 12% rise from 2011. Although Bank of China’s results were higher than analysts’ expectations, it was still the slowest year for growth since the bank went public in 2006.