The Asian banking giant, which provides wealth management among its range of services, has reported results for the first half of 2017.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the largest Chinese lender by assets and which provides wealth management in its roster of offerings, reported a pre-tax profit for the first half of this year at RMB196.5 billion ($29.8 billion), up slightly from a year earlier (RMB194.7 billion).

The bank, which has an A and A1 credit rating from S&P and Moody’s, respectively, said net attributable profit also rose year-on-year to FMR152.9 billion, from RMB1.49 billion. Its shares are listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In the first half of 2017, ICBC logged net fee and commission income of RMB76.67 billion, representing a 6.2 per cent drop, mainly because the lender cut fees and offered discounts, and also because of a fall in income from agency funds and insurance, investment and financing consulting, bond issuance and underwriting, corporate wealth management services, asset custody and other business. Income was affected by bond and capital market volatility, insurance product regulation, replacement of business tax with VAT and other factors during the reporting period.

This news service interviewed ICBC more than two years ago about its wealth management business (see here).