BEIJING - Bank of Communications, China's fifth-largest lender, reported slightly higher net profits in 2016 from a year earlier on the back of steady growth in non-interest income.

Its net profits reached 67.2 billion yuan ($9.77 billion) in 2016, up 1.03 percent year on year, according to its annual report filed with the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

Niu Ximing, chairman of the bank, attributed the profit rise to steady growth in non-interest income and the bank's cost saving efforts. The bank has made remarkable progress in business restructuring, he noted.

Last year, its new renminbi-denominated loans totaled 300.88 billion yuan, all of which went into the real economy. Its outstanding loans to small businesses reached 683.96 billion yuan, up 9.53 percent from the beginning of the year.

As of the end of 2016, the bank's total assets reached 8.4 trillion yuan, up 17.44 percent from the start of the year. Its capital adequacy ratio, which measures a bank's risk of insolvency from excessive losses, stood at 14.02 percent, 0.53 percentage points higher from early 2016.