Bank of China Profit Rises 3% in Third Quarter as Economy Slows

(Bloomberg) -- Bank of China Ltd., the country’s fourth-largest lender by assets, posted a 3% increase in third-quarter profit as the financial industry weathers a deepening economic slowdown.

Net income for the three months through September rose to 45.5 billion yuan ($6.5 billion), the lender said in a filing Wednesday.

Bank of China joins bigger rivals including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. in reporting stable earnings even as the nation’s economy expanded at the slowest pace since the early 1990s and corporate defaults surged. The outlook remains challenging as increasing efforts to boost growth and help struggling small businesses threaten to squeeze lending margins and lead to a pileup of bad debt.

Read more: China’s ICBC sees profit rise 5.8% amid slowing economy

Shares of Bank of China have lost 4.7% in Hong Kong this year, under-performing the benchmark Hang Seng Index and sending its valuation to near-record low.

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