Hong Kong’s banks saw pre-tax profit drop 2.8% on average in 2015 thanks to growing bad debt, narrower interest rate margins and lower loan demand, South China Morning Post reported, citing the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Profits for the territory’s banking sector had grown an average 3.7% in 2014, and last year’s figure marks the first drop since the more than 30% nosedive brought on by the global financial crisis in 2008. Total loans grew 3.5% in 2015, down from 12.7% the year before, while the proportion of bad and doubtful loans grew to 0.65% as of September’s end, with the figure for such loans to mainland-related firms higher still, at 0.77%.
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