BEIJING - Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC), one of China's major State-owned lenders, posted a double-digit net profit growth in the first half of 2019 as its retail banking and intermediary business expanded.

The bank's latest financial results showed a 14.98-percent year-on-year rise in net profits, which came in at 37.42 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) in H1.

Operating income clocked in at 141.7 billion yuan, up 7.02 percent year-on-year.

The bank saw sound growth in retail banking, with the number of its individual customers increasing 11.09 million from six months earlier to 589 million at the end of June.

Intermediary business was also boosted. The bank's net fee and commission income reached 9.34 billion yuan in H1, up 21.57 percent year-on-year.

The bank's bad loan ratio stood at 0.82 percent as of the end of June, less than half of the industry's average level and down 0.04 percentage points from the end of 2018.

During H1, the PSBC strengthened credit support for the economy's weak links, with its outstanding loans to the rural sector as of the end of June growing 8.06 percent from six months earlier and those to small and micro businesses climbing 12.41 percent, according to the bank.