Agricultural Bank of China net profit up 1.8% in 2016

BEIJING - Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country's biggest lenders, on Tuesday said its net profit rose 1.8 percent year on year to 184 billion yuan ($26.7 billion) in 2016.

The rise was largely buoyed by its net fee and commission income, which registered a 10.2 percent year-on-year increase last year, according to the bank's annual report.

However, the bank's operating income decreased 5.6 percent year on year to 506 billion yuan in 2016 as net interest income, the major source of its operating income, fell 8.7 percent to 398.1 billion yuan.

The company also reported that its bad loan ratio fell slightly to 2.37 percent by the end of last year.

The combined onshore assets of China's "big five" lenders -- the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of Communications -- came in at 83.1 trillion yuan by the end of last month, accounting for 36.1 percent of the total assets in the industry, data released by the China Banking Regulatory Commission showed on Tuesday.