THE BANK of Communications, China's fifth-largest bank, yesterday posted a 30 percent jump in 2011 net profit from the previous year on higher loan margin and fee income.

The net earnings for the Shanghai-based lender rose to 50.74 billion yuan (US$8.02 billion) last year on a wider interest margin of 2.49 percent, 0.1 percentage point up from a year earlier. The net interest income rose 21 percent to 102.6 billion yuan.

Its total outstanding loans were 2.56 trillion yuan by the end of 2011, and the bank lent 325 billion yuan in new loans.

Its fees and commissions from services, including credit cards, trade finance and custodial services, surged 35 percent annually to 19.6 billion yuan.

The bank's fourth-quarter profit rose a quarterly 5.89 percent to 12.59 billion yuan, according to calculations derived from its full-year and third-quarter reports.

BoCom's non-performing loan balance fell from 25 billion yuan in 2010 to 22 billion yuan last year, and its NPL ratio shed 0.26 percentage point to 0.86 percent.

The lender issued a 26 billion yuan subordinated debt in October and said early this month that it plans to raise 56.6 billion yuan through a private placement of H shares for capital replenishment.