Bank of China (BOC), the country's second largest lender, said on Friday its before-tax profits rose 37.6 percent to 24.25 billion yuan (US$3.15 billion) in the first quarter.

The bank's total turnover was up 26.7 percent to reach 42.7 billion yuan in the first three months under the international accounting rules, and the after-tax profits for its shareholders was recorded at 11.7 billion yuan, up 17.6 percent.

Without considering the one-off expense of 4.2 billion yuan from income tax adjustments required by the international accounting rules, the bank's after-tax profits stood at 17.2 billion yuan, an increase of 53.1 percent year-on-year.

The good performance of the bank is down to the rapidly growing earnings from interests and fees in the first quarter, according to Wang Zhaowen, spokesman with BOC.

Its quarterly report showed the bank saw its net income from interest surge by 31.1 percent to 34.4 billion yuan in the January-to-March period, while its savings deposits expanded by 5.14 percent to reach 4.3 trillion yuan at the end of March.

The bank's service fee and commission income rose 64 percent to 5.2 billion yuan in the first quarter, 12.1 percent of the period's operating income.

By the end of March, the bank's total assets reached 5.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.1 percent from the end of last year.

Chinese shares closed lower on April 27 for the first time this week, with BOC's share price dipping more than two percent to end the day.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2007)