Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. I am Geng Wei, Secretary to the Board of Directors of BOC Limited. Welcome to our 2017 interim results release conference. Today, at present, we are honored to have the analysts from domestic and overseas institutions, altogether more than 100. At the same time, we also see some familiar faces, which are the old friends of BOC. You are welcome to attend this conference. This conference is held in Beijing, and it is also audio and video linked to real-time in our Hong Kong venue. Our 2017 interim report has been announced on the website of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing and the bank. You could gain access to our website for the presentation as well. Unless stated otherwise, all the financial data quoted today are in announcement with IFRS. Please pay attention to attend to this disclaimer before our conference proceeds.
Next, please allow me to introduce our senior management team present today. Chairman, Mr. Chen Siqing. Executive Vice President, Mr. Ren Deqi. EVP, Mr. Gao Yingxin. EVP, Mr. Zhang Qingsong. EVP, Mr. Liu Qiang, and CRO, Mr. Pan Yuehan. First, I will welcome our Chairman Chen to address the bank's 2017 interim results. And after that, we would hold a Q&A session. So dear friends, you can provide and raise your questions and remark on that occasion, and we will distribute the questions between Beijing venue and Hong Kong venue. So, Mr. Chen, you have the floor.
Distinguished analysts, this is the second session of the conference, and it is evening already. First of all, please let me introduce the bank's interim results and outlook for the second half of this year. On page four, it is mainly about the performance, the improved operating performance.
First, we can see that the profit after tax has increased steadily. The profit after tax is CNY 110.55 billion, increased by 3.02% year-on-year. A profit attributable to the equity holders because we are a publicly listed company. In Hong Kong, this year we can see a huge increase of the profit attributable to the equity holders. At the same time, we have to exclude the part from the transactions of NCB, and we can see the increase of the profit attributable to the equity holders by 11.45% year-on-year, scoring CNY 103.69 billion. Analysts may take a look at this. Why there is a gap between these two figures? Because we have to consider the changes from the BOC (Hong Kong), and also, we can see the asset and liability is expand prudently.
The bank's total assets and liabilities reached CNY 19.4 trillion and CNY 17.9 trillion respectively, up by 7.04% and 7.42% respectively. So, the asset quality maintained relatively stable. The NPL ratio is about 1.38%, and we can see the decrease compared to the end of last year, about 0.08%. On page five, you can take a look at this. This is for the NIM. We bound it moderately, not very much. If we exclude the reform of the VAT, we can see the room for the changes are very relatively stable, and also the NIM rebound by 1 percentage point. Due to the rise of the market rates, the USD rate hiked and optimized by its asset and liability mix. Also the bank's NIM rebounded and improved quarter by quarter, and also at the same time, the improvement of the NIM improved by 2 percentage point .
So, combining two together, we can see the improvement is very positive for excluding the impact from VAT reform. The bank's NIM increased by 5 basis points compared to the last year. Fee income increased steadily because on one hand, we proactively reduced the fee. On the other hand, we also improved and increased innovation and also the mix of the fee charges. So combining these two factors, the final number for the net fee and the commission income is CNY 49.2 billion, by 2.8% year-on-year. And also, the businesses like the bank card fees and the settlement and clearing fees and consultancy and advisory fees and the spread income from foreign exchange business grew rapidly. The asset quality also maintains stable. The NPL ratio stood at 1.38%. It doesn't mean the domestic banks is lower in terms of the NPL dramatically. It's just the number at the group level.
The domestic NPL ratio is very good. And the total number, as we can see, is shown on the table. The special mention loan ratio was 2.77%, a decrease by 11 basis points QoQ. The balance and ratio of overdue loan decreased concurrently. At the end of June, the bank's overdue loan ratio was 1.97%. So, in this part, and w e are comparing ourselves with our peers. So, in this part, we can see that the transfer of the ratio and NPL coverage ratio met regulatory requirements of the CBRC. So, we are highly above the requirement level of the CBRC. This is what we have done and achieved in the first half of this year in terms of performance. Actually, the achievements in the first half did not come easily. The customers are quite supportive to us, and analysts also provide us with your opinions as well.
Mr. Tian, our former Chairman, just left Bank of China. In the first half of this year, due to his leadership, we have taken the lead. As the director Chairman of the board for more than four years in the office, Mr. Tian Guoli devoted himself to perform the duties and responsibilities diligently, and also made strategies for BOC. So we can finish the job for the governance and reform and arrangements of our strategies and improvement of our risk control. So during last of more than four years, leadership of Chairman Tian Guoli make it come true. So here, I'd like to especially extend our gratitude to the devotion and his leadership. Some highlights for the first half of this year are numerous. The first one is we can see the improved corporate banking profile, which accounts for the major part of the income.
And also the loans also increased steadily with moderate growth. We are developing our banking profile steadily by 4%, and the domestic corporate loans is about CNY 5 trillion. The new loans is supposed to support Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei industries and Belt and Road Initiative to support Chinese enterprises. First of all, we have a lower interest rate. You can see that from 1.71% down to 1.56%. Especially the daily average time and also the daily average demand deposits also have improved dramatically. We can see that the cash management, especially the daily deposits, is improved, and the pension also improved by 12%. The international settlement also improved about 30% of the total, which is number one among peers. We can see that the global trade settlement and cross-border RMB settlement also improved.
It is fair to say that we can see the cross-border businesses improved, and the personal banking also improved as well. The personal banking actually increased by 30%. In the future, it can contribute more income. The contribution by the personal banking improved substantially. Right now, in the first half of this year, 40.2% are the comprehensive income contribution by personal banking. Right now, the corporate banking is lower than that of the personal banking in terms of the growth rate. The active personal customers improved by 6%. Personal customers' financial assets improved by 9%. AUM of private banking up by 18%. Transaction amounts of the debit cards up by 27%, and the transaction installment amounts of the credit cards up by 37%. That is for the domestic and overseas. We should also rely on the domestic businesses as well.
In the future, we are going to have a more solid mix of the businesses. The next page is about the financial markets businesses. Mainly, the global operation is on the way, and we have seen the steady growth rate of the bonds. Right now, the investment in the bonds, the speed is very high. Most of the businesses in the market rank number one, especially the wealth management. We have taken the prudent wealth management strategies. Right now for the prudent development of the wealth management businesses totaled CNY 1.4 trillion , and the non-principal guaranteed wealth management is taking 76%, and 24% are from the principal guaranteed wealth management businesses. The market shares in the fixed FX are trading against their RMB businesses and also the Panda Bonds underwriting, and also the market share in offshore RMB bonds underwriting.
Among domestic peers, also ranked number one. Therefore, for the transactions and also for the prudent operations of the wealth management and agency trading and transactions, we also have improved very much. We can also take the competitiveness to invest furthermore in the global market. In the first half of this year, we can see the overseas pre-tax profit grew rapidly up by 33.33% and grew by 23.6% compared to the previous year. The Srbija branch, and also Luanda branch, which is in Africa, and also Dublin branch established in Europe. After the establishment of this one, we would see more businesses coming into our bank. Because in that area, we haven't seen other peers from China.
For the loans right now, the deposits about CNY 2.79 trillion, and the loans about CNY 300 million-something , and including the branch from Macau, the NPL is about 0.18%. Combining Chinese Belt and Road strategy, internationalization strategy for BOC, and combining the Belt and Road Initiative with our own strategy together in the international market. In the future, the projects, especially targeted at the Belt and Road in the future, will be about $80 billion in total in next three years. It has already issued the three tranches of the Belt and Road themed bonds. The source of the capitals is also diversified. Altogether, 417 major projects received the Belt and Road themed bonds by three tranches. We diversified the institutions to do the bond issuance.
We are going to issue furthermore, the themed bonds for the Belt and Road Initiative, not only contact the businesses along the Belt and Road. At the same time, we would also generate some officials at the ministerial level to train them so that they can understand China. Also, they can be mobilized together to support and to understand the connotation of Belt and Road Initiative from China so as to create synergies between each other. In Cambodia, in Philippines, in recent days, we also have held a training course in Thailand. We know that risks along the Belt and Road is very high. Therefore, the country risk need to be understood. Then we have to understand the products and the risk portfolio as well.
Only in this way can we push forward the implementation of the initiative. At the same time, we can grasp the risks and understand it. Next PPT. Diversified businesses. In the first half year of this year, we also have made a fresh progress. The BOC I, BOCIM, BOCG Insurance, and BOC Investment in the first half of this year scored very positive results. The total revenues improved, and the pre-tax profits of the non-bank subsidiaries totaled to CNY 5.86 billion. We think that after the publicly listing of the investment, we can see a huge improvement. This year, in terms of the IT development, we also have done a lot. For example, the smart counter have scored a good result, and 36 tier one branches have been covered by this network of smart counter.
For example, in Shenyang and in Suzhou, and also some coastal cities have been covered by the smart counter network. On a whole, the outlets by the end of June, we have seen about 5,500 outlets have been covered by the smart counters. Also, we can see the paced development of the smart counters under progress. At the same time, maybe you have also downloaded the APP of our e-banking. By the end of June in 24th, we have pushed forwards a new version, which is fully supported and very popular among users. Maybe in the near future, we are going to issue a new version of the APP of e-banking so that you can have a very good result and also experience by using it. Also, the BOC E-Credit is on the rise as well compared with last year.
The growth rate is about 2.2 or 220% growth for the e-credit coverage. The IT innovation is going to be the future guidance for us. We believe that on the globe, especially in China, when we are pushing for the internet plus strategy, we are going to cover more area and also more regions that we use the BOC E-Card.
Our strategy is to take our corporate social responsibility. That is why in the first half, we have already had some highlights related to CSR. First of all, we proactively promoted the SME trade cooperations, and we have already organized 35 cross-border matchmaking events for the SMEs, and this year we organized the 12 events. And also, we have this inclusive finance, where we have done a lot of work. By working with the China Development Bank, we have already acquired 15 village banks together with our own 82 village banks, altogether 97 village banks. Also, they have branches under these village banks. We are also trying to acquire other village banks from other banks. Even though we are the most globalized bank in China, our village bank network is 14% of the total market share in China.
Our next step work is to spin it off and to get listed so that our inclusive finance could be better developed. In terms of the targeted charity, we focused on Shenyang, Baishui County of Shanxi Province and was very well done. It has been conducted for 15 consecutive years. Through this charity work, we were helping these poor counties to alleviate their poverty. We also have this dual Olympics bank title because in 2008 Summer Olympics, we were the official partner for the 2008 Olympic Games. This time we are very happy to be the official commercial banking partner of the Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. In July, we have launched this event to celebrate. We are the official partner for the Olympic Games in 2022. What is our next step work in the second half? We are going to continue our strategy.
We are going to take the measures to fully implement the National Financial Work Conference's spirit. Three focus would be done. First of all is to serve the real economy in a solid way. Secondly is to support the supply-side reform and to support the government strategy of the Three Eliminations, One Reduction, and One Compensation. Also is to dispose or recover the different financial risks by strengthening the supervision and enhance our ability. And that's one of the basic work in our second half. Also, we have a national financial system reform and a supervisory reform, supervision on system reform. We are going to adapt ourselves in order to be aligned to the financial system reform. This is the work we are going to do in the second half.
On this following slide, we are going to transform and also to control and to also to build our bank to be an internationally well-known excellent bank. That's our purpose in order to generate some profits and value for our shareholders, customers, employees, as well as society. Our analysts might be very familiar with the data yet, and even we couldn't read those, find the proper number. You have already seen it. We have our strength, and we also have our difficulties. If we can use our strengths well enough and then to take care of the weaknesses, then the BOC could have a very good image and reputation among all the banking sector. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chen, for your presentation. Just now, Mr. Chen has given a very in-depth explanation of the first half of achievements as well as the next step work of the second half of 2017. I believe you might have a lot of questions to ask. Now we would like to move on to the Q&A session. Let's start from Beijing site. Any questions, please? Okay. There is China Commercial Securities, Mr. Ma [Kunpeng]. Could you ask the question?
Okay. Thank you. My name is [Ma Kunpeng], and before asking the question, congratulations on the good performance. As Chairman said, if we do not consider the one-off transaction of NCB, our performance is really good. A question related to the quality of the asset, because for this year, the overall operation of the banking sector has been improved and the performances have been improved because the quality of the asset is one of the major pillar. BOC and also the ECL as well as the overdue loans, all those have been reduced. So what's your forecast for the second half in terms of the quality of the assets? Thank you.
Asset quality is always a topic for this press conference, and I didn't realize that you can ask the question for the first time. Of course, this question will be taken by our Chief Risk Officer, Mr. Pan Yuehan. Please.
Thank you for your question. If we look at the first half, the overall control of the asset quality has been very well done and the NPL ratio is 1.38%, down by 8 basis points compared to the beginning of last year. Special mention category loan ratio has been reduced, is around 2.77%, down by 34 basis points , and overdue loan ratio is 1.97%, d own by 18 basis points. So, we have already tried to eliminate the potential risk and done a lot of work in that regard. I will not go to details, but I believe you might be concerned about future measures to be done. We believe in terms of the control of the asset quality, there indeed will be some pressures. If we look at the BOC itself, as well as the overall international economy, you might be very familiar with it because you're professionals.
The recovery is still very weak. There are still a lot of uncertainties existing. Also the market forecast is very sensitive and a lot of volatility factors are still existing. Domestically, the National Financial Work Conference has pointed out that we need to further deepen the supply-side reform and to adjust the overcapacity industry structure. Therefore, the credit risk exposure for the business will continue to exist. Also certainly from our own perspective, you can see in some specific area, there are still some pressures over the new NPLs. For example, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Shandong, et cetera. They have a very huge pressure of the NPLs. So we believe the pressure of control and manage the NPL is still there, is still under great pressure. Even though we have a low NPL, we have sufficient provisions. We are very confident over our risk control ability.
In terms of our next step work, we are going to focus on the risk control and prevention, and also to dispose the potential risks and eliminate those risks proactively and proactively manage the risk management. That is the focus of our work in the next second half, so as to keep the NPL at a certain stable range. Thank you.
We would like to have another question from the Beijing site. Macquarie, please, Mr. Xu.
Thank you. We discovered that in the first half, the NIM, the interest spread has been improved. I would like to understand what is the future trend for the NIM change, and what is the reason for the improvement of NIM in the first half?
Okay. It is a financial issue, so we would like to give the floor to Mr. Zhang Qingsong, the Executive Vice President.
Thank you for your question, Mr. Xu. NIM, indeed, interest spread indeed is one of the major financial indicator for the management team because our NIM revenue still is a major contributor for overall revenue. I have to answer this question each and every time in a press conference. Last year, I remember I put a lot of efforts explaining why there is a decrease. An improvement of the NIM for the first half is out of my expectation, to be honest, and the improvement level also is out of my expectation. That is why in my daily work, I have spent a lot of time observing the changes of the NIM and trying to figure out, analyze what are the underlying reasons for the changes in order to clarify whether there is a clear trend or not. Indeed, in the first half, the NIM performance was pretty good.
Just now as the Chairman mentioned, compared with the year 2016, there is a 1 basis point of a growth. We do not consider the VAT reform, the growth could be 5 basis points. As you know that the daily average assets for BOC has already exceeded 16 trillion. 1 basis point of change is of huge absolute numbers. Good performance in the first half. If we look at the year-on-year comparison in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter, there was a 4 basis points of growth. Second quarter compared with the first quarter, 8 basis points of growth. The reasons are of two folds. The first one is domestic and international macroeconomic policy as well as market change have brought some positive impact. Secondly, it is because of BOC's optimization of the debt and liability structure.
From the assets side, this year, RMB market has been steadily growing and in a comparative long time period, the interest rate has been maintained to a higher level. Therefore, the dues and displacement, as well as bonds investment and other marketized capital yield has been highly increased. Internationally, U.S. dollar-based assets, due to the U.S. rate spike, make the short-term interest rate go up very quickly, also caused such a two quarter of continuous improvement of NIM, which is by 10 basis points. The external NIM change is even higher. This is from the asset perspective. From the liability perspective, last year, when we were trying to analyze whether it is a dropping of the NIM, we mentioned about that in the year 2015, PBOC continuously, of large scale, reduced the interest spread for deposit and the loan.
Because of the disparities of the pricing period, that is why there is a cost incurred, of extra cost for the liability, as well as the misalignment with the revenue of the asset side. The repricing negative impact had been already digested in the first half. That is why in the liability side, the cost has been well controlled. Just now, the Chairman has mentioned many times that this year, the personal as well as corporate demand deposit improved by 2.21 percentage points. The deposit cost of RMB dropped by 12 basis points. That is why the cost of the liability side has been well controlled. Certainly, we also proactively optimized our liability structure for our assets. That is why I mentioned about the demand deposits share has been raised by 2.21%. We also enlarged the mid- and long-term loan balance. The ratio increased by 2.35 percentage points.
I also mentioned about the debt investment, especially the local debts or local bonds. The average term is around six to seven years. We also invested in those midterm and long-term bonds lasting for six or seven years, and it could be around 5.7% without considering the tax issue. So there is internal and external elements as well as internal optimization. Even though we have not seen a reverse trend, but anyway, we believe for the whole year, this NIM could be stabilized to a positive direction. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Zhang. We also have more than 30 analysts from Hong Kong site. Thank you very much for attending today's press event. We would like to give the floor to our Hong Kong colleague and Mr. Jin, who is also from the Secretary of the Board. The floor is yours. You will chair the questions. Thank you.
Now we would like to open the floor for questions. [Mr. Xuran] from Morgan Stanley.
Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. My name is [Xuran Ti]. I would like to ask a question related to corporate loan. There is a huge demand in the first half, and the growth of the syndicated loan, its growth rate is very high. We would like to ask the management team, what is your strategy in the second half so as to provide more space for the corporate loan?
Okay. Thank you for your question. Mr. Gao will answer your question.
Thank you very much. As you mentioned, in the first half, the domestic as well as the overseas businesses of BOC have witnessed a very strong loan demand, especially for domestic loan demands, because the capital market interest rates goes up and the cost for direct financing have been increased. Therefore, there is a very strong momentum of corporate loans from the banks. Also BOC as the major foreign reserve business bank, we also play a very important role, especially for those companies going outside China. Also in the past few years, BOC has developed some mainstream businesses in oversea market. That is why there is a huge growth of oversea loans. In general, in the first half, the overall loan grow by CNY 402.7 billion, up by 6.1%. Domestically, there is a growth of CNY 200 billion of loans up by 4%.
For overseas, the loan growth rate reached 12%, which is very good. For BOC corporate loan history, this is very important and of special significance. The new incremental for the corporate loan, 50% comes from both domestic and overseas market. In the second half, our strategy, because the domestic demand is still very strong. For BOC, our strategy for the corporate loan is to continue to follow the national strategy, especially after the National Financial Work Conference meeting, serving the real economy. That is the principle, and we will coordinate and arrange the credit resources, especially targeting those major areas of under sectors with strategic importance, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration area, as well as Belt and Road-related areas. Sector-wisely, we are going to continue to focus on infrastructure, energy, and other new areas of strategic importance, especially green loan.
Green credit support will be enhanced in order to fully support the SME development. In general, we hope in the second half, the growth rate for the domestic loan growth would maintain as stable with the first half. Also the overseas loan for the corporates could be maintained as well with the level of the first half, so that the overall loan growth could be higher than that of last year. In terms of the pricing, we are going to follow the market trends. Based on the changes in the market as well as our liability and asset structure, we will continue to improve our management of the pricing in order to give a reasonable pricing. Hopefully, it could be optimized.
Thank you, Mr. Gao, for your answer. Now, the floor is given to Hong Kong venue for another question.
Good evening to your senior management. I am from Deutsche Bank. My question is related to deposit. In the past years, deposit competition is getting worse. This year, this competition is getting worse. However, deposit growth of the bank in the first half was rather good, with a high proportion of current deposit. I want to know BOC's plan for deposit business for the whole year. What is your view about the latter half of the year? Thank you.
Thank you for your question, Mr. Fan. I give this question to Mr. Zhang Qingsong.
Thank you, Mr. Fan, to your question. Bank of China pays continuous attention to deposit business.
In the first half of the year, we made a major breakthrough, which is a milestone achievement for us. In the first half, RMB deposit balance reached CNY 10 trillion. This is a big milestone for us. A growing of CNY 566 billion as compared to the beginning of the year, and RMB deposit shares maintain stable. Besides RMB deposit, our traditional advantage, which is foreign currency deposit business, was further enhanced. By the end of June, group deposit in foreign currency exceeded $500 billion, or rather $507.3 billion. Amidst of fierce competition, as mentioned by Mr. Fan just now, we have made great achievements. In taking deposit, we are paying attention to the changes of macroeconomic situation and pay attention to the changes of competition and pay attention to the changes of customer behaviors. We follow three principles in handling deposit business.
First, we want to see deposit growth. At the same time, we also pay attention to the cost of deposit for this CNY 500 billion of deposit growth. Actually, we try to reduce high cost deposit by more than CNY 100 billion. Five to six years ago, contract-based deposit was giving out interest rate of 6%. Now this deposit matured. For us, the cost is too high, so that's why we didn't resume this business. So we pay attention to volume and the price. Second, in deposit business, we pay attention to customer relations. With a satisfactory profound customer relations, Bank of China can get a good deposit, a sustainable deposit. The third principle is that we pay attention to financial asset for the customer because individuals are getting wealthier with more investment capability.
Between personal financial asset and deposit, there is a close correlation, and we are trying to expand the financial asset of the customer and bringing deposit at the same time. For actual works related to attracting deposit, we have done five aspects. We have made efforts in five aspects. First, for corporate deposit, we expand public service unit deposit, which is a potential area. We also pay attention to industrial chain and supply chain, expand upstream and downstream customers of our main customer. So chain services, the customer's fund can be kept within Bank of China Group. We also pay attention to our key product, that is global cash management, as mentioned by our Chairman, which is our pride. Which is a way of providing services to our global clients, bringing us balance growth of 22%.
In basic settlement business, we are also providing services to the customer to drawing in deposit. For personal deposit, we expand the salary payments, collection payment, collection, and sweeping, and also escrow businesses. We try to create Bank of China good account system and provide one-stop account services to the customer, including account management, fund pooling, and smart time deposit. We provide customer with products centering around their needs of salary payment, investment, financing, payment, and cross-border businesses. Thirdly, we try to help the customer invest in financial assets. We want to enhance the flow of the asset and enhance our financial asset investment product. In this way, customers' financial asset can be expanded and improved. Fourthly, we make use of our IT to promote intelligent branches, and we optimize our online banking and mobile phone banking, WeChat Banking, to provide convenient, safer, intelligent services to the customer.
Lastly, we make use of our overseas network to get overseas deposit. So, Bank of China's deposit market is not only within China. We have a presence in 51 countries and regions. So, our group network, we centralize all the cash. We have offices in 51 countries and regions. We can attract a deposit of different currency of different terms, and we are utilizing those funds in a centralized way. In this way, we can support our asset growth with low-cost deposit.
Thank you. Now, another question opportunity for Hong Kong.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I'm from CIC. My name is Wang Yap ing. So I think for the performance of Bank of China, overseas business developed a lot, contributing to 1/4 of the total profit before tax, and the growth of those profit is growing. I want to ask, Bank of China emphasize Belt and Road Initiative and opportunities. What actions will be taken by Bank of China to maintain our competitive edge in this area? Can you give us some midterm goals identified by Bank of China? Because in Hong Kong and mainland, it is difficult for us to get data like that.
Thank you, Mr. Wang. You have asked the biggest competitive edge and the most important strategy of Bank of China. That is our overseas business. I have to invite Mr. Chen, Chairman of our Board to answer this question. He is most qualified to answer this question.
Thank you for your question. About internationalization, Bank of China follows internationalization strategy. We will continuously promote this strategy. Internationalization of BOC is the dream of different generations of BOC employees, and also this is a great opportunity for us.
Chinese government promote One Belt, One Road strategy and promote RMB internationalization, promote the outbound investment from Chinese companies. These positive factors add up to our great motivation force behind our internationalization. In the first half, we have made great achievements in this aspect. In future internationalization, we will take more solid steps. For internationalization, it is under the backdrop of globalization. Globalization challenged currently with U.S. de-globalization strategy and Europe's exit from Britain exit from Eurozone, and also the rise of protectionism. Brexit is a problem as well. This increased the difficulties of our overseas expansion. However, we believe that we have more positive factors than negative factors. The world is looking eastward, and our bank should assist this opportunity, and we have the conditions ready to get more overseas expansion. The bank have many advantages.
You talk about mid-term goals, and we are also reflecting on that. In terms of the regions and the countries we are covering, we cover 51 countries and regions already. Recently, we want to expand to 60 countries and regions. It is not very difficult. In the latter half of the year, we will come to more countries with subsidiaries and branches. In the recent term, we will cover 60 countries and regions. This is our near-term goal. Second, we have $800 billion asset in overseas countries and regions. We hope that we can reach $1 trillion within a short period of time. Because our total asset is CNY 19.4 trillion. $1 trillion means that our total asset will grow to CNY 22 trillion. In the near term, Bank of China's asset will exceed CNY 20 trillion -CNY 21 trillion, CNY 22 trillion.
Overseas, $1 trillion assets. If we consider our overseas banks as one bank and $1 trillion asset, even with $1 trillion asset, the bank's ranking is among the top ranks in international bank rankings. Profit contribution should arrive at 30% in the near term. That is our path for overseas expansion. We try to establish our own branch and subsidiary, but if good opportunities arise, we may engage in merger and acquisitions. We also have a successful experience of acquisition. For example, BOC Aviation. BOC Aviation used to belong to Temasek. We buy 100% of its shares after several rounds of negotiation. 10 years after our acquisition, it is listed in Hong Kong, the profit is CNY 500 million.
Now we take up 70% of the shares, and the cost of our acquisition has already been recovered. We have acquisition experience. We mainly engage in commercial banking. Sometimes the asset and liabilities of banks are operated by others. To look through bank's asset, it has to depend on third-party assessment. We try to establish ourselves, but we do not exclude opportunities of merger and acquisition. Hong Kong is very important for us. Hong Kong is the bridgehead for our overseas expansion. We sold Nanyang Commercial Bank to get capital to integrate our business in East Asian countries. Our institutions in Southeastern Asian countries are merged in Hong Kong. Afterwards, Asian institutions will be integrated. Europe will be integrated. American institutions will be integrated.
Our risk is more complex in America because North America and South America are of different economic development levels. In the process of overseas expansion and in domestic market, we focus on domestic companies. In domestic market, we focus on private clients. In overseas business, we focus on corporate clients. We try to get Fortune 500 companies and also Chinese company investing in other countries, and a good quality customer in overseas market. Our product is offshore RMB financial products and a local currency financial product and cross-border products. System integration, global cash management, and RMB clearing, international clearing network. We can set up a comprehensive product line and establish an internationalized bank. On this basis, we can integrate traditional bank with internet bank advantages. In this way, our internationalization path can be sustained. When we talk about overseas expansion, we still focus on risk management.
One is compliance risk and AML risk. The second is credit risk and the market risk. We pay attention to risk control in overseas expansion. In this way, internationalization process, we not only seek quantity, but also want to get qualitative goals. In this way, Bank of China, as a good brand name, we don't compare with the other top four banks. In domestic market, our advantage is in overseas market, and you can see it. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman Chen. One final question from Hong Kong. This lady.
Thank you for giving me this final opportunity. My name is [Zhang Zhuojia] from Citibank. My question is related to retail banking. We know that the corporate customers are getting direct financing, and this has a negative impact on profitability of the banks. Faced with future challenges, Bank of China wants to focus on personal banking businesses. Can you talk about your goal in personal banking? Thank you.
The question is given to Mr. Liu.
All of you are professionals in these areas. You know how much goal does personal banking have. Now I can show you a personal experience. To turn personal banking business as one promoter of business and our steady factor in asset quality, we cannot take fast food. We have to pay continuous efforts in improving personal banking. That is why in 2014, BOC mentioned that after mid to long-term efforts, we can let our personal deposit proportion and personal business operating income proportion and profit after tax proportion can take up 50% of the bank's total. These goals have been achieved. The first phase of these goals has been achieved.
In the first half of this year, domestic RMB personal deposit take up 46%, RMB loan balance take up 41%. Just now, our Chairman has mentioned that the comprehensive income ratio exceeded 40%, among this 40%. Non-interest income contribution was 43.7%. With continuous efforts in the past years, we have achieved gradual achievements, and we have achieved major milestones. We try to make investments in improving the product line in personal banking. Also, we try to achieve synergy among different channels. Just now, the Chairman has introduced you that our mobile banking business is continuously developing, launching new versions, improving customer experience. In the next steps, we will cover inclusive financing and wealth financing, consumer financing, cross-border financing, and internet financing. We will be involved in these areas. We will focus on these above-mentioned areas.
To provide precise customer providing and to provide precise marketing materials to the customer. To provide good quality services to the customer and increase the contribution of personal banking business.
Thank you, Mr. Liu. Now, we would like to invite Beijing to ask one final question.
I see BOCI analyst, Mr. Zhang Yaogang. The final question is left with you.
Thank you. I'm from BOCI. My name is Zhang Yaogang. I have a follow-up question about personal banking. I want to know about wealth management product. Because I found out from this year, the regulatory framework is tightened, and for the scales and the data reported by the big four about wealth management product, it is slowing down. So, I want to know the development strategy of the bank for WMP. Will you make adjustment about wealth management product? What is your prospect for the latter half of the year for WMP?
The floor is given to Mr. Ren.
Thank you, Yaogang. The regulators strengthen its control on WMP and asset management businesses. We believe this is conducive for the standardization of this business, and can help us to mitigate financial risk, can promote the sustainable development of asset management sector. The Chairman, in his PPT presentation, has said that BOC continuously stick to the principle of a prudent operation and a steady development. Broad asset management product is a strategic priority of our transformation. Wealth management product are included into the comprehensive risk management framework of the bank. We stick to this full centralization rules and follow the regulators' requirements closely, and we carry out self-checks and strengthen WMP management.
By the end of June, proprietary wealth management was CNY 1.44 trillion, relatively stable as compared to the same period last year. Looking at non-principal guaranteed WMP, it was CNY 1.1 trillion. Looking at the investment, 80% of the money was invested into standardized debt instruments. The other 20% are invested in non-standardized debt assets. Equity instruments only take up less than 2%. So, our asset structure is rather stable and steady, prudent. We will follow the regulators' rules. In terms of strategy, we will focus on broad WMP industry and technically, we will give fully to the advantage of Bank of China as a diversified and internationalized bank. We will take efforts in the following aspects to improve our WMP business to ensure sustainable steady development. First, we will give fully to the advantage of diversification of Bank of China.
We have BOC Securities and we have direct investments. Their asset management capability can help us to optimize our asset allocation. So, in group synergy, through group coordinated efforts, we can enhance the return for our WMP. Second, we will give full play to the role of Bank of China as an internationalized bank. Bank of China, as mentioned by the Chairman, is unique in its international products. Our domestic investors and overseas investors both have the needs for cross-border asset allocation. Domestic investors want to invest outbound, while overseas investors also are attracted by the orderly capital market of China. So there will be flow into China as well. Cross-border business of Bank of China is better than other banks. We will speed up the development of cross-border wealth management product.
Certainly, we will follow the latest changes of regulatory policy, try to achieve full compliance of WMP business. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ren. Due to time limit, that is the end of question-and-answer period. Thank you. Thank you all the analysts for your professional questions. We have seven questions. Each of the question is to the point, covering asset quality, NIM, credit, placement, deposit, overseas business, retail banking, and WMP business. These questions enable us to understand what are the interests of the market on BOC. It help us to do a better job in future.
Thank you for your questions. The Chairman and the senior management members answer the questions in a frankly way. I hope that this communication can help you to solve your puzzles. Some of the questions cannot be answered here. You can leave your questions with us and can contact the board secretary at the head office. We can provide you the answer as soon as possible. Thank you again for your long-term support to BOC. That is the end of this meeting. Thank you.