(Bloomberg) -- Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s largest lender by assets, posted its fastest profit growth since September 2014 as margins and asset quality improved.
Net income in the quarter ended June rose 5.8 percent from a year earlier to 81.6 billion yuan ($11.9 billion), according to an exchange filing Thursday. China’s five biggest banks have all reported profit growth of at least 5 percent for the latest quarter.
While the big five benefited from President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on riskier shadow financing in the first half, analysts are cutting profit forecasts for the rest of this year as an intensifying trade war with the U.S. threatens to slow China’s growth. Lenders’ pricing power and capital strength may also be weakened by a renewed push for credit expansion and loosening of monetary policy, as authorities look to sustain the economy.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Jun Luo in Shanghai at jluo6@bloomberg.net;Alfred Liu in Hong Kong at aliu226@bloomberg.net;Lucille Liu in Hong Kong at xliu621@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Mamudi at smamudi@bloomberg.net, Jeanette Rodrigues
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