ICBC targets growth in fee-based services

The president of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) said on Wednesday that he expects the bank's fee-based business to account for almost a third of net profit within "several years," the Wall Street Journal reported. Fee-based services comprised 13% of profits in the first half of 2007. Speaking on the sidelines of the Communist Party Congress, Yang Kaisheng said that the fee-based income is already growing faster than loan-based income. Traditionally, China's state-owned banks have relied on interest earned on loans to other state-owned enterprises for the bulk of their income. Yang added that ICBC's principal focus remains on the domestic market, although it is considering further acquisitions and setting up more foreign branches at the "right price, the right time and the right place." ICBC, China's largest lender by assets, recently bought an 80% stake in Macau's Seng Hang Bank.