BEIJING -- Huaxia Bank announced Thursday that its net profits surged 42.36 percent year-on-year to reach 6.08 billion yuan ($965 million) in the first half of this year.

The profit jump was attributed to a steady increase in deposits and loans, optimized income structure, effective cost control and better-quality assets, the bank said in a statement filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

The Beijing-based mid-sized lender said its total assets hit 1.35 trillion yuan at the end of June, up 8.87 percent from the beginning of the year.

The bank's deposits and loans increased 8.13 percent and 9.67 percent from the start of the year to hit 968.85 billion yuan and 670.59 billion yuan, respectively.

Due to its cost control efforts, its cost-to-income ratio lowered 2.02 percentage points to stand at 40.57 percent during the first six months.

At the end of June, the bank had 119 billion yuan in outstanding loans issued to small enterprises. Its non-performing loan ratio eased to 0.85 percent, down from 0.92 percent at the beginning of the year.

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