Bank of China 1st-Quarter Net Profit Edges Higher

Bank of China said Friday that its net profit in the first quarter rose slightly from a year earlier, thanks to growth in fee and commission income.

China's fourth-largest lender by assets said profit for the three months ended March 31 was 46.65 billion yuan ($6.8 billion), up from 46.62 billion yuan a year earlier.

Net interest income fell 1.17% to 78.61 billion yuan, while non-interest income rose 17% to 50.92 billion yuan in the latest period, the bank said.

The bank reported 150.32 billion yuan of nonperforming loans at the end of March, up from 146 billion yuan at the end of 2016. The bank's bad-loan ratio edged down to 1.45% at the end of March from 1.46% at the end of last year.

Write to Grace Zhu at grace.zhu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2017 05:37 ET (09:37 GMT)