ZA Bank's revenue, users rise

ZA Bank, the city's virtual bank backed by ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance (6060), saw its first-half net loss narrow by 17 percent to 177 million yuan (HK$190.4 million) from a year ago.

Net revenue in the first six months grew 13 percent to 152 million yuan from a year earlier, with net interest margin widening to 1.87 percent amid the rate-hike cycle. Non-interest operating income accounted for 25.8 percent of the revenue.

As of June, ZA Bank had 700,000 retail customers, compared with some 650,000 users at the end of last year. Meanwhile, the bank held a deposit balance of HK$10.7 billion and a gross loan balance of HK$4.9 billion as of end of June.

This came as ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance returned to an interim net profit of 221 million yuan from a net loss of 636 million yuan for the same period last year.