BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Bank of China, one of the country's four biggest lenders, maintained steady growth in net profits last year, company data showed.

The bank's net profits stood at 180.1 billion yuan (about 26.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, up 4.45 percent year on year, a basically stable growth compared with the 4.76-percent gain in 2017.

Operating revenue came in at 503.8 billion yuan, up 4.14 percent year on year, according to a company statement.

Assets totaled 21.3 trillion yuan by the end of 2018, up 9.25 percent year on year. Meanwhile, the non-performing loan ratio went down 0.03 percentage point from a year earlier to 1.42 percent.

Between 2015 and 2018, the bank provided over 130 billion dollars of credit for countries engaged in the Belt and Road Initiative, according to the statement.