BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Bank of China Ltd (BoC) , the country’s fourth-biggest lender by assets, on Thursday reported a 1.5 percent fall in net profit in the third quarter as bad loans grew. Profit for June-September was 40.8 billion yuan ($6.42 billion) from 41.4 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier. The result compared with the 0.975 percent average growth estimate of four analysts polled by Reuters. BoC’s non-performing loan ratio increased to 1.43 percent at September-end from 1.41 percent three months prior. ($1 = 6.3552 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Engen Tham in SHANGHAI and Matthew Miller in Beijing; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
Bank of China - 3Q 2015 net profit of RMB 40.8bn ($6.42bn), down 1.5%, due to a faltering Chinese economy and record provisions set aside for bad loans. The bank said it would cut its dividend by the same amount in an effort to boost cash flow as part of efforts to reduce capital outlays.