BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) ranked first among domestic commercial lenders for core competitiveness last year, according to a high-end industry report released on Sunday by Chinese Banker magazine.

    China Merchants Bank, the country's sixth largest lender, ranked second behind ICBC, the country's largest lender, followed by China Construction Bank.

    Corporate governance, business process, information technology, risk control, products and service, human resources and development strategies were factors in assessing the domestic commercial banks' competitive strength, said Wang Songqi, chief editor of the Beijing-based magazine.

    Wang, also the deputy director of the Institute of Finance and Banking under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, added the research showed domestic institutions had made headway in building their core competitive power. However, their profitability was still largely relying on traditional interest margin business.

    Amid domestic and global financial uncertainties, the Chinese banking industry was facing challenges in credit risk management, liquidity risk management and profitability, he said.

    It was the fourth time the magazine had released the annual domestic banking competitiveness report that took an expert panel nearly one year to complete.