ICBC overseas profits up 27.5%

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the Mainland's biggest lender, said pretax profit from overseas operations rose 27.5% in the first half to US$88.9 million due mainly to increased revenue from fee-based services, Bloomberg reported. Non-performing loans at its more than 100 overseas branches stood as of June 30 at 0.87% of total lending compared with 4.58% at ICBC's domestic operations.