The domestically-listed China Minsheng Banking Corp. reported its net profit grew 43.3 percent to 3.8 billion yuan (49.4 million U.S. dollars) in 2006.

Company sources said that at the end of last year, Minsheng's non-performing loans (NPL) outstanding stood at 5.5 billion yuan (714.3 million U.S. dollars), up 674 million yuan (87.5 million U.S. dollars) from the beginning of the year. But the NPL ratio dropped 0.05 percentage points to 1.23 percent.

The fast growth in profits was largely attributable to improved risk control, the sources said. Last year, Minsheng managed to expand its retail and intermediary business, paving the way for further rapid growth.

The company's individual customers numbered 12.43 million at the yearend, with 94.7 billion yuan (12.3 billion U.S. dollars) in savings deposits. It ranked fourth among China's 13 joint-stock commercial banks in terms of savings deposits.

Last year, Minsheng issued 1.43 million credit cards, involving an annual transaction volume of 6.8 billion yuan (883.1 million U.S. dollars) and business income of 111.4 million yuan (14.5 million U.S. dollars). It ranked first among the joint-stock commercial banks in terms of number of credit cards issued.

At the end of last year Minsheng recorded 700 billion yuan (90.9 billion U.S. dollars) in gross assets, up 26 percent from a year earlier, 583 billion yuan (75.7 billion U.S. dollars) in deposits, up 19 percent, and 447 billion yuan (58.1 billion U.S. dollars) in loans outstanding, up 18 percent.