BANK OF CHINA ANNOUNCES 2009 INTERIM RESULTS

(27 August 2009 - Hong Kong) - Bank of China Limited ( BOC or the Bank , HKEx stock code: 3988, SSE stock code: 601988) announced its 2009 interim results today.

In the first half of 2009, adhering to the government s strategic direction to maintain growth, expand domestic demand and promote restructuring and the moderately relaxed monetary policy, the Bank continued to implement its strategic development plan. The Bank achieved significant progress in expanding business scale and adjusting business structure and remarkable results in both business development and improvements in risk management.

In accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ( IFRS ), as of 30 June 2009, the total assets and total liabilities of BOC reached RMB 8.21 trillion and RMB 7.71 trillion, an increase of 18.06% and 19.29%, respectively, as compared with the end of 2008. Gross loans and advances rose by 30.

86% to RMB 4.31 trillion and deposits due to customers grew by 22.55% to RMB 6.25 trillion, compared with the end of 2008. In the first half of 2009, BOC earned net interest income of RMB 74.722 billion, a decrease of 8.34% year-on-year. Net fee and commission income grew by 2.64% year-on-year to RMB 22.

955 billion. Operating expense decreased by 6.81% to RMB 41.820 billion and impairment losses on assets decreased by 41.20% to RMB 10.081 billion. BOC made RMB 41.123 billion in profit attributable to shareholders, down 2.51% year-on-year, but up 85.41% compared to the second half of 2008. Return on equity was 17.

59%.

Deposits and loans grew rapidly, resulting in a notable increase in market share

Capitalising on the opportunities arising from the government policy of expanding domestic demand and stimulating economic development, BOC leveraged its overall competitive advantages and strengthened its marketing management approach to attract high-quality customers and projects. In the first half of the year, the balance of RMB-denominated deposits and loans in domestic operations increased by 27% and 38% respectively from the prior year-end, resulting in an increase in market share by 0.

46 and 0.88 percentage point respectively, compared with the prior year-end. Domestic RMB-denominated corporate loans rose by RMB 760.9 billion, an increase of 45% compared with the prior year-end. Domestic personal loans denominated in RMB rose by 20.69% to RMB 135.3 billion, compared with the prior year-end.

Domestic RMB-denominated deposits rose 26.86% from the prior year-end to RMB 1056 billion. BOC maintained its leading position in domestic foreign currency-denominated deposits and loans with the highest increase in market share among its peer of 1.86 and 2.62 percentage points, respectively, from the prior year-end.

Domestic corporate loan denominated in foreign currency increased by US$ 17.8 billion, or 37.46%, and deposits denominated in foreign currency increased by US$ 6.4 billion, or 13.55%, compared with the prior year-end.

Currency structure of assets further optimized

While expanding the scale of the business, BOC has also increased its efforts in adjusting its balance sheet structure. The Bank further optimized the structure of its RMB and foreign-currency assets, properly controlled the allocation of assets, balanced the risk and yields and enhanced the yield of interest-earning assets to increase our profitability.

Proportion of interest-earning assets to total assets rose by 0.69 percentage point to 96.91% and proportion of RMB assets to total assets reached 73.26%, an increase of 8.02 percentage points compared with the prior year-end. Proportion of RMB investment securities to total investment securities increased by 9.

20 percentage points to 71.82%. At the same time of adjusting and optimizing foreign currency assets structure, foreign currency loans and trade finance businesses grew. Proportion of foreign currency loans to foreign currency assets rose by 9.57 percentage points.

Effective loans led to optimized portfolio structure

BOC proactively adjusted its loan portfolio structure. As result, the distributions of corporate loans were optimized in tenors, regions and industry mix. The proportion of loans granted to government supported industries significantly increased and provides a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the Bank.

As at the end of June 2009, proportion of loans granted to Water & Public Utility Management industry rose 4.44 percentage points compared with the prior year-end, while proportion of loans granted to Manufacturing industry dropped by 2.44 percentage points compared with the prior year-end. Proportion of loans granted to industries with over-capacity decreased by 3.

41 percentage points. Corporate loans in 15 key regions represent 73.7% of total corporate loans, while corporate loans in 10 western resources rich provinces represent 11.6% of total corporate loans. (All proportions of loans mentioned in this paragraph are compared with domestic corporate loans)

Fee-based business developed steadily with an increase in fee income

BOC responded proactively to the adverse effect of the economic downturn by enhancing product innovation to promote sustainable growth in fee-based business. In the first half of 2009 BOC earned a net fee and commission income of RMB 22.955 billion, which represented 21.28% of operating income, an increase of 2.

46 percentage points compared with the first half of 2008. The Bank maintained its leading position in international settlement business with an increase in market share. Domestic credit cards increased by 3.75 million cards, or 40.19% compared with the prior year-end, boosting bank card fees income to increase by 29% year-on-year.

Loan and deposit related fees income had recorded robust growth, of which consultancy and advisory fees income increased by 96.7% and credit commitment fees income increased by 22.4%, becoming the major drivers for fees income in the first half of 2009. Remarkable improvement in bond underwriting business with rank in underwriting market rose to No.

3. The amount of fund distributed by BOC had increased to over 360 by 29% compared with the prior year-end. The amount of trust accounts, products and assets under management maintained steady growth. Accelerate growth was seen in annuity business. The amount of personal annuity accounts rose by 310 thousands and amount of annuity funds under management increased by RMB 2.

9 billion.

Remarkable results were achieved in promotion of integrated development of domestic & overseas business and centralized management model

Serving the Going-Global corporate is a new growth driver for BOC as it can fully utilize the Bank s competitive advantage in overseas business. BOC has adopted a new Global Customer Manager Service model to take advantage of its leading position in overseas and foreign currency business. Thus, the Bank s core competitiveness in serving Going-Global customers will be enhanced.

In the first half of the year, BOC has been proactively supporting domestic corporate in export, overseas investment, acquisition of assets, overseas contracted projects and labour co-operation projects. The Bank has also been successfully participated in some key projects, like the US$3.6 billion debt-restructuring projects of CNOON and the acquisition of Australia s OZ Minerals by China Minmetals Corp.

Also, the Bank has been following and reserved for numbers of high-quality projects.

To enhance its strength in overseas local operations, BOC accelerated the pace of network expansions in Asia Pacific regions and emerging markets that have a close trading relationship and growth potential with China. In 2009, the Bank set up branches in Indonesia s Mangga Dua and Brazil. At the same time, given the first-mover advantage in cross-border RMB trade settlement business, BOC will further expand its overseas RMB business.

Continuous improvements in risk policies led to better asset qualities

The Bank adhered to its moderate risk appetite, dynamically adjusting its credit policies and appropriately investing in credit assets by identifying those industries and customers with sound growth potential and relatively low risk whilst streamline approval and credit management process by adhering to the principles of centralised management, BOC also enhances its multi-dimensional and customized credit authorisation framework with parameters including geographical regions, customer types, industries and products.

In addition, the Bank increased support to high-quality key customers and projects. BOC took various measures such as cash collection, write-off and restructuring to resolve non-performing loans, which amounted to RMB 22.6 billion in the first half. As at the end of June 2009, non-performing loans of the Bank amounted to RMB 77.

487 billion, a decrease of RMB 10.003 billion compared to the prior year-end. NPL ratio dropped by 0.85 percentage point to 1.80% compared to the prior year-end, while NPL coverage ratio increased by 17.24 percentage points to 138.96%.

Under the guiding principles of a scientific outlook on development, BOC will continue to implement national macro-economic policies, adhering to the strategies of Scaling Up, Streamlining Structure, Shoring Up Brand, Strengthening Infrastructure, Slashing Cost and Sharpening Competitiveness , by attaching importance to business development, steady expansion of scale, and optimizing restructuring and risk management, and underpinning the foundations for the Bank s sustainable development.

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