(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-03-25 21:33

BEIJING  -- Bank of China said on Tuesday its 2007 net profit rose 31.3 percent from the previous year despite the exposure to the US mortgage credit crisis among Asian lenders.

Net profit reached 56.3 billion yuan (7.9 billion US dollars), up from 42.8 billion yuan in 2006, the state-owned lender said in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The bank had recorded an impairment allowance of 1.3 billion US dollars for its 4.99 billion US dollars in investment in securities linked to US subprime mortgages by the end of last year, it said.