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The Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) streamlined its banking system over the past three years by removing or merging over 17,000 inefficient business outlets and laying off 137,000 employees, the bank said Thursday.
As the ABC streamlined and downsized, its operating profit increased considerably, reaching 11.273 billion yuan (US$1.36 billion) in 2002, increasing 9.283 billion yuan over the previous year.
ABC Vice-President Yang Mingsheng said that the bank made three big strides in the past three years. In 2000 its regular business became profitable; in 2001 the bank turned losses to profits; and in 2002 its operating profits rose sharply to a pre-tax profit of 2.902 billion yuan while writing off bad debts of 8.371 billion yuan.
Yang said the bank's outstanding deposits increased from 1.5925 trillion yuan in 1999 to 2.483 trillion yuan in 2002, while that of its loans increased from 1.2686 trillion yuan to 1.8995 trillion yuan during the same period.
Last year the ratio of the bank's non-performing assets dropped by a further 4.72 percentage points, Yang said, adding that in 2003 it is expected to drop another four percentage points.
China's other three State-owned commercial banks - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), Bank of China (BOC), and the China Construction Bank (CCB)- also reported greater profits and better asset quality for last year.
(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2003)
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