The largest banks in China said their buffer against expected loan losses may stay at elevated levels in the second half of 2020, although pressure on net interest margins may ease, after they reported the sharpest year-over-year decline in their first-half net profit in recent years. Among the nation's five biggest lenders by assets, Bank of China Ltd. reported the steepest drop in net profit for the six months ended June 30, down 11.51% from a year earlier to 100.92 billion yuan. Impairment losses on loans, also called loan-loss provisions in other markets, rose 70% to 60.73 billion yuan from 35.72 billion yuan a year earlier, also the largest increase among major lenders. Its nonperforming loan ratio increased to 1.42% as of June 30, from 1.37% as of end-2019.