ICBC likely to report world-leading profits

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is expected to report the largest profit of any bank globally on Thursday, the Financial Times reported. The bank has already indicated that first-half net profits have grown by more than 50% from US$6 billion in the same period last year. But the paper said Chinese bankers estimate ICBC’s first half profits to have soared by over 60% to around US$9.7 billion. China’s state-dominated banking sector has been virtually untouched by the global credit crisis due to limited exposure to overseas markets. One unnamed ICBC source was quoted as saying, "We haven’t got the biggest profits in the world because we’re running much faster, it’s because the rest of the world is running much slower."