Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

While achieving a relatively small proportion of overall profits, overseas bankers in Shanghai have outperformed domestic banks in profit growth-terms in the first half, seeing a jump of two-thirds year-on-year and beating the average 20 percent recorded by their domestic rivals', today's Eastday.com reported.
The banking sector recorded a total 19.56 billion yuan (US$2.37 billion) in profits in the first half, the report said, citing the latest data from the Shanghai Banking Regulatory Bureau (SBRB).
Of this, foreign banks generated 1.16 billion yuan, up 68.3 percent year-on-year.
State-owned banks recorded profits of 12 billion yuan, up 19.3 percent, while domestic commercial banks earned 6.35 billion yuan, up 12.6 percent. The SBRB attributed the growth to increases in their mid- to long-term loan businesses.
In terms of asset quality, overseas banks outpaced domestic ones with lower non-performing-loan (NPL) rates. 
At the end of June, overseas banks' NPL ratio stood at 0.74 percent, or 1.3 billion yuan, compared to the domestic banks' 3.58 percent, or 47.7 billion yuan.
Of the latter, housing-related loans increased 140 million yuan from January to 1.13 billion yuan at end-June.
The total assets of Shanghai's banks jumped 14.3 percent to 2.83 trillion yuan, a growth rate 5 percentage points lower than a year previously.