Photo taken on Oct. 11, 2011 shows staff members working in a branch of Agricultural Bank of China in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province.(Xinhua/Liang Zhiqiang)

BEIJING, May 3 (Xinhua) -- China's six major state-owned banks reported improving assets quality in general in the first quarter of this year.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications and Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) all posted falling bad loan rates year on year in Q1, while that of China Construction Bank and Bank of China remained flat, according to their financial statements.

The PSBC registered the lowest non-performing loan rate among them, standing at 0.83 percent.

All six banks saw steady net profit growth, with the PSBC posting the highest year-on-year net profit growth pace at 12.2 percent.

ICBC remained the most profitable bank among them, with its Q1 net profit attributable to its equity shareholders reaching about 82 billion yuan (about 12.18 billion U.S. dollars). Enditem