The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's biggest state-owned commercial bank, reported a total profit of 64.4 billion yuan (US$7.9 billion) in the first nine months this year, 6.5 billion yuan more than a year earlier.

The bank's total outstanding savings deposit stood at 5,585.9 billion yuan by the end of September, an increase of 162.3 billion yuan year on year, according to Tuesday's Financial News.

ICBC was transformed into a joint-stock company on Friday, a step closer toward its plan for public listing.

The new company, named the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited, will assume all business and relevant assets and debts of the former ICBC, with a registered capital of 248 billion yuan.

Each of the two sponsors -- the Ministry of Finance and Central Huijin Investment Co., Ltd., a central government investment arm that supports China's aggressive financial reform -- holds a 50 percent stake.

China is overhauling its big four state banks, which also include China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China, before it fully opens its banking industry to foreign competition by late 2006 under its commitments to the World Trade Organization.

The debt-ridden banks are required by the government to become "commercial banks in a real sense" by establishing shareholding systems, inviting strategic investors and then seeking public listings.

The ICBC boasts more than 21,000 business outlets in China's mainland, serving more than 8 million enterprises and more than 100 million individual clients.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2005)