In figures that highlight strains in China’s financial system, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which provides services including wealth management, has reported its biggest jump in bad loans since at least 2006.

In figures that highlight strains in China’s financial system, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which provides services including wealth management, has reported its biggest jump in bad loans since at least 2006, media reports said.

Bad loans have expanded by 9 per cent in the three months to end-September from the previous quarter, it is reported to have said. (Results have not yet been posted to the bank’s website.)

Net income rose by 7.7 year-on-year to RMB72.4 billion ($11.8 billion), which according to Bloomberg, matched the median forecast of analysts it polled.

The news service said that ICBC’s nonperforming loans rose to RMB115.5 billion in September from RMB105.7 billion in June. The increase was the biggest since quarterly data became available with the bank’s listing in 2006, reports said.

Recently, ICBC, in a trend matched by some other big China lenders, announced that it had signed an agreement with UK insurer Standard Life to work together to identify opportunities for the benefit of both businesses in China, Hong Kong and the UK.

ICBC already has a long-standing relationship with Standard Life’s joint venture in China, Heng An Standard Life, in which it has a 50 per cent stake.