SHANGHAI - Bank of Communications, one of China's largest commercial banks, posted a year-on-year net profit decline of 14.61 percent in the first half of 2020 (H1) as the COVID-19 epidemic resulted in more bad loans.

Net profits for the January-June period totaled 36.51 billion yuan ($5.3 billion), the lender said in its interim financial report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

During the six-month period, the bank generated revenue of 126.79 billion yuan, an annual increase of 7.28 percent.

By the end of June, the bank's total assets amounted to 10.67 trillion yuan, up 7.72 percent compared with the end of 2019, the bank said.

At the end of June, the bank's non-performing loan ratio stood at 1.68 percent, up 0.21 percentage points from the end of 2019.