BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) (601398.SS), (1398.HK), the world’s biggest-listed lender by assets, posted on Friday the fastest rise in third-quarter net profit for five years as growth in soured loans slowed.

Net income for state-controlled ICBC came in at 83.78 billion yuan (£9.23 billion) for the three months through September, up 5.8% from 79.19 billion yuan in the same period a year earlier.

The rate of profit growth was above the average forecast of 4.25% drawn from two analysts surveyed by Reuters.

ICBC’s non-performing loan ratio edged down to 1.44% at end-September from 1.48% at end-June.

Its net interest margin narrowed slightly to 2.26% at end-September from 2.29% three months earlier.

Other major Chinese banks, including Bank of China (3988.HK) (601988.SS) and China Construction Bank (0939.HK) (601939.SS) will report results next week.