Beijing/Hong Kong, 29 April 2019 – China Construction Bank Corporation (“the Bank” or “CCB”) (A-share stock code: 601939; H-share stock code: 939) released its business performance results for the first quarter of 2019 (the data herein were prepared under the International Financial Reporting Standards on a consolidated basis and expressed in RMB unless otherwise stated). Core indicators such as assets, profitability, capital adequacy ratio and asset quality have performed steadily.

Since 2019, CCB has placed the service of the real economy and the realization of high-quality development at the top of its management work, assisting the structural reform of the financial supply side, focusing on strengthening the ability to serve the country, preventing financial risks, participating in international competitiveness, and focusing on difficulties and pain points of the people's livelihood, to meet the needs of economic and social development and the needs of the people, to achieve high-quality development of various businesses.

As at 31 March 2019, the Bank’s assets grew steadily and totaled RMB24,190.91 billion, an increase of RMB968.22billion or 4.17%, from the end of 2018; total liabilities reached RMB22,121.89 billion, an increase of RMB890.79 billion or 4.20% from the end of 2018. The total loans and advances was RMB14,227.12 billion, an increase of RMB444.06 billion or 3.22% from the end of 2018; and the deposits was RMB18,053.82 billion, an increase of RMB945.14 billion or 5.52% over the end of 2018.

In the first quarter of 2019, the Bank reported a net profit of RMB77.93 billion, of which the net profit attributable to equity shareholders of the Bank was RMB76.92 billion, up 5.20% and 4.20% year-on-year respectively. The annualized return on average assets and annualized return on average equity were 1.31% and 15.90% respectively.

While the deposit and loan business grew steadily, the Bank's net fee and commission income was RMB43.03 billion, up 13.44% year-on-year. The main reason is that the Bank actively optimizes products, expands customers, seizes market opportunities, promotes the development of key products, and achieves a rapid growth in bank card, e-banking, and agent business income.

With the "new generation" system and big data, CCB continues to build a modern banking risk control system with the concept of comprehensive and active management, and comprehensively improve risk prevention capabilities. As of the end of March 2019, the Bank’s balance of NPLs totaled RMB207.46 billion, and the NPL ratio was 1.46%, same as that at the end of 2018; the ratio of allowance for loan impairment losses to NPLs was 214.23%, up 5.86 ppt from the end of 2018.

As the results of the first quarter indicate, as of 31 March 2019, CCB’s capital adequacy ratio, tier 1 ratio and common equity tier 1 ratio, which were calculated in accordance with the Capital Rules for Commercial Banks (Provisional), were 17.14 %, 14.39 % and 13.83 % respectively, all meeting the regulatory requirements.

Since 2019, CCB strives to build the “Second Curve”, actively fulfils the social responsibilities of the large state-owned commercial banks to serve the people to live and work in peace and harmony and build a better modern life, using financial power to relieve economic and social “pain points”. CCB actively implements the integration of industry and education, collaborating with well-known enterprises and universities to promote development through the combined advantages of industry, education, research, and application; with the support of financial technology, CCB innovates inclusive financial services, launching “Yun Dian Loan” and other products, focusing on solving financing difficulties and saving financing costs for small and micro enterprises; CCB built a smart government service platform to help improve the quality and efficiency of government services, and launched a “one-mobile phone-for-all” service in Yunnan, which is convenient for the people to easily handle government services, including household registration, employee’s pension insurance inquiry, appointment for taxation affairs, etc.; CCB made solid progress in supporting agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and in alleviating poverty through financial services, and helped revitalize rural areas. CCB introduced an action plan for targeted financial poverty alleviation across 2020, optimizing policy supply, strengthening innovation momentum, deepening technology empowerment, and building a long-term mechanism for financial poverty alleviation.