China’s largest state-owned banks continued to earn strong profits in the first quarter of the year in spite of monetary tightening and rules that now require lenders to hold more than one fifth of their deposits in reserve at the central bank.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the world’s biggest bank by market value, reported a first quarter net profit of Rmb53.8bn ($8.3bn), up 29 per cent from the same period a year earlier, while the smaller but more international Bank of China notched up a profit of Rmb33.4bn, up 27.7 per cent from a year earlier.

The profits were bigger than analysts had expected but showed signs of slowing from last year’s rapid increases. ICBC’s net profit rose 32 per cent from a year earlier in the fourth quarter of last year, while BOC’s profit rose 34 per cent in the same period.