Business Overview 2017
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was established on 1 January 1984. On 28 October 2005, the Bank was wholly restructured to a joint-stock limited company. On 27 October 2006, the Bank was successfully listed on both Shanghai Stock Exchange and Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. Through its continuous endeavor and stable development, the Bank has developed into the leading bank in the world, possessing an excellent customer base, a diversified business structure, strong innovation capabilities and market competitiveness. The Bank regards service as the very foundation to seek further development and has made efforts to build a “bank of the first choice of customers” while providing a comprehensive range of financial products and services to 6,271 thousand corporate customers and 567 million personal customers. The Bank has been consciously integrating the social responsibilities with its development strategy and operation and management activities, and gaining wide recognition in the aspects of promoting inclusive finance, supporting targeted poverty relief, protecting environment and resources and participating in public welfare undertakings. The Bank always keeps in mind its underlying mission of serving the real economy with its principal business, and along with the real economy it prospers, suffers and grows. Taking a risk-based approach and never overstepping the bottom line, it regards controlling and resolving risks as its iron law. Besides, the Bank remains steadfast in understanding and following the business rules of commercial banks to strive to be a century-old bank. It also stays committed to seeking progress with innovation while maintaining stability, continuously enhances the strategy of mega retail, mega asset management, mega investment banking as well as international and comprehensive development, and actively embraces the internet. The Bank unswervingly delivers specialized services, and pioneered a specialized business model, thus making it “a craftsman in large banking”. The pattern of internationalized and diversified operation was further improved, covering 45 countries and regions, and contributed more to the Bank’s profit-making. For the fifth consecutive year in 2017, the Bank ranked 1st place in the three authoritative lists of The Banker’s Top 1000 World Banks, the Forbes Global 2000 and the Fortune Global 500 Sub-list of Commercial Banks.
Financial Highlight As at the end of 2017, total assets of the Bank amounted to RMB26,087,043 million, RMB1,949,778 million or 8.1% higher than that at the end of the previous year. Total liabilities reached RMB23,945,987 million, an increase of RMB1,789,885 million or 8.1% compared with the end of last year. The whole year witnessed a net profit of RMB287,451 million, increasing by 3.0%, return on average total assets of 1.14%, return on weighted average equity of 14.35%, core tier 1 capital adequacy ratio of 12.77%, tier 1 capital adequacy ratio of 13.27%, and capital adequacy ratio of 15.14%. Operating income amounted to RMB675,654 million, representing an increase of 5.3%, of which net interest income stood at RMB522,078 million, representing a growth of 10.6%; non-interest income reported RMB153,576 million. Operating expenses amounted to RMB186,194 million, representing a decrease of 3.6%, and the cost-to-income ratio was 26.45%.
Corporate Banking At the end of 2017, the number of the Bank’s corporate customers increased by 487 thousand over the end of the previous year to 6,271 thousand. The Bank was awarded the title of the “Best Corporate Bank in China” by Global Finance for eight years in a row and won the title of the “Best Bank for Renewable Energy” by Global Finance for the first time. 1. Corporate deposits and loans. At the end of 2017, the balance of corporate loans reached RMB8,936,864 million, representing an increase of RMB796,180 million or 9.8% over the end of the previous year. The balance of corporate deposits hit RMB10,557,689 million, representing an increase of RMB1,109,169 million or 11.7%. 2. Small and medium-sized enterprise business. The Bank promoted the specialized business model of small and micro enterprise banking centers in an all-around way, and established 234 such centers, adopting batch-based, standardized and one-stop services mode to improve efficiency and capability. The Bank strengthened product innovation in reliance of internet, enriched scenario-based risk control and credit approval models, achieved online and intelligent credit review and approval, researched and developed online mortgages and online petty loan products. The Bank received the title of the “2017 SME Service Bank with Excellent Competitiveness” from China Business Journal.
3. Institutional banking. The Bank secured the opening of provincial accounts in 26 or 68% of the 38 central governments as well as provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities) which have commenced the pension insurance reform of governmental agencies and administrative institutions, ranked the first in the banking industry in terms of the new accounts opening for receipts and payments accounts, the special fiscal accounts and the occupational annuity fund pooling account. The Bank was in the first place in the banking industry in terms of the fiscal revenue and expenditure agency business, boasted the most extensive coverage and the largest volume of cross-province traffic fine payments, and was the largest investor in the local debt investment market by value. The Bank actively promoted interbank business and maintained its position as the No. 1 in the market of banking institutions by the financial bonds it underwrote.
4. Settlement and cash management. The Bank actively explored the new methods of combining corporate sector with internet-based finance, actively promoted product and service innovation in a user-centric way, accelerated the development of intelligent corporate customer services, and released the “intelligent account opening” service for corporate customers. The Bank expanded the customer scale, improved customer quality and cemented customer base via such platforms as Industrial and Commercial Enterprise Link, Small and Micro Enterprise Platform, ICBC e-Payment and Large-amount Fund Flow Monitoring. The innovation of global cash management services enabled the business to grow fully at home and abroad. The Bank proactively provided customers with a full package of financial solutions covering six product lines, namely, account information, collection and payment, liquidity management, investment and financing and risk management. At the end of 2017, the Bank maintained 7,489 thousand corporate settlement accounts, representing an increase of 7.6% over the end of the previous year, and the volume of settlements reached RMB2,563 trillion, up 5.5% over the previous year. The Bank maintained its leading position in the business size. There were 1,381 thousand cash management customers and 6,388 global cash management customers. The latter represented an increase by 10.8% from last year.
5. International settlement and trade finance. The bank made efforts to accelerate the online transformation and innovation, and promoted the deep integration of international business with internet. The Bank sped up its development in the international business e-system, and promoted the development and rollout of the cross-border remittance project of corporate internet banking. The Bank launched the non-local presentation of documents in the Bank-Enterprise Interlink System and the SWIFT direct connection, among other functions, for key customers, which enhanced the intensive business processing efficiency and the personalized customer services capability. In 2017, domestic branches disbursed an aggregate of USD66,730 million in international trade finance. International settlements registered USD2.8 trillion, of which USD1.1 trillion were handled by overseas institutions.
6. Investment banking. The Bank expanded its merger and acquisition advisory business by successfully carrying out domestic and foreign merger and acquisition projects, developed the new business models of debt financing consultation by achieving a success in various structured financing and liquidity debt financing projects, conducted the equity financing advisory business, improved the operational efficiency of state-owned assets, and successfully completed a batch of equity financing projects. The Bank actively developed its bond underwriting business and underwrote 1,497 domestic and overseas debt financing instruments with a total value of RMB1,293,778 million as the lead underwriter throughout 2017. The bonds which the Bank underwrote as the lead underwriter in the domestic market account for 13.26% of the market share, preserving its No. 1 position in the market.
Personal Banking At the end of 2017, personal financial assets totaled RMB13.0 trillion, representing an increase of RMB781.7 billion compared with the end of last year. Meanwhile, the Bank had 567 million personal customers, including 12.26 million personal loan customers, representing an increase of 37.58 million and 0.93 million respectively. The personal loans stood at RMB4,945,458 million, representing an increase of RMB749,289 million or 17.9%. The personal deposits arrived at RMB8,380,106 million, representing an increase of RMB239,825 million or 2.9%.
1.The Bank further deepened the application of big data analytical technology, continued to improve and promote the customer profile function in an all-around manner, and formed an online and offline integrated system of precise marketing with multiple contact points.
2.The Bank optimized and promoted the “ICBC Cloud Manager” services, and rendered a variety of specialized financial services, e.g. information consultation, product recommendation and inquiries, to customers remotely through ways such as ICBC Link, telephone and SMS.
3.The Bank continued to deepen the innovation of “ICBC Salary Manager”’s function, a payroll payment agency product, and improved the level of customer services, it released some innovative personal deposit products, e.g. “Tian Tian Hui” “Salary Premium No. 3”.
4.The Bank strengthened fund agency products and business innovation, and co-published the market’s first-ever bank-customized fund index with China Securities Index Co., Ltd., which made the Bank’s fund agency business brand more influential.
5. Private banking. The Bank’s overseas institutions’ private banking business experienced sustained growth, and the bank was able to provide green account opening, asset allocation, credit facility and value-added services for customers in 21 overseas countries and regions. At the end of 2017, the Bank maintained 75,500 private banking customers, representing an increase of 5,431 or 7.7% from the end of the previous year. Assets under management amounted to RMB1.34 trillion, growing by RMB126.6 billion or 10.7% from the end of the previous year.
6. Bank Card Business. The Bank introduced “ICBC Easy Loan”, a purely credit-based online personal consumption loan product, which disbursed loans of RMB98,315 million accumulatively in 2017. The “ICBC Easy Loan” won the “Top 10 Internet Financial Products: Innovation Award” granted by The Chinese Banker. At the end of 2017, the Bank issued 908 million bank cards, representing an increase of 80.96 million cards compared with the end of the previous year. Among which, 765 million debit cards and 143 million credit cards were issued. Overdraft balance of credit cards rose by RMB82,737 million or 18.3% from the end of previous year to RMB534,776 million. In 2017, bank cards registered a consumption volume of RMB6.7 trillion, including RMB4.3 trillion of spending with debit cards and RMB2.4 trillion of spending with credit cards.
Financial Asset Services Seizing the opportunities arising from customers’ wealth increase and capital market growth, the Bank made efforts to establish a mega asset management business system across the whole value chain and leveraged its strength of the Group’s asset management, custody, pension businesses, and the functions of its comprehensive subsidiaries specialized in fund, insurance, leasing and investment banking. Thus, the Bank rendered diversified and integrated professional services for its customers.
1.Wealth management business.The Bank kept expanding the product lines of personal wealth management and developed wealth management services for corporate customers to serve the real economy and prevent and control financial risks. At the end of 2017, the balance of stock wealth management products increased by 11.4% compared with last year to RMB3,012,084 million, remaining the largest in the industry.
2.Asset custody services. The Bank has developed a sound asset custody product and service system, and remained a market leader in respect of custody products. The Bank successfully became the custodian of the first public FOF fund in the market, obtained the custody qualification for the first domestic occupational annuity fund pooling account and the entrustment of custodianship from International Monetary Fund QFII, INVESCO and Fidelity’s domestic WFOE privately offered funds. At the end of 2017, total net value of assets under the Bank’s custody amounted to RMB15.5 trillion.
3.Pension services. At the end of 2017, the pension funds under the Bank’s trusteeship amounted to RMB107.9 billion; the Bank managed 17.30 million individual pension accounts, and the pension funds under the Bank’s custody totaled RMB501.6 billion. The Bank led other banks in terms of the scale of enterprise annuity funds under the Bank’s trusteeship, number of individual enterprise annuity accounts and enterprise annuity funds under the Bank’s custody.
4.Precious metal business. The Bank made active efforts in adapting to market changes, accelerated the innovation in physical products, launched physical products crafted with new techniques and with affordable luxury theme, and sped up the building of supporting logistics system to satisfy the customer’s consumption demands for physical products with diversified themes, timely delivery and convenient services and enhance their consumption experience. In 2017, the sum of precious metal business transactions was RMB1.60 trillion. The Bank cleared RMB466.6 billion on behalf of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, up 14.8% from last year.
5.Agency treasury business. The Bank achieved steady development in foreign exchange trading business, and further consolidated its leading advantages in the money business in the Belt and Road and emerging markets. The Bank was among the first in the banks to roll out the paper base metals and paper agricultural products non-stop trading products. The Bank provided customers with financial services on the basis of foreign exchange rate and interest rate risk management. In 2017, the volume of franchise foreign-currency derivatives transactions reached USD30.3 billion, increased by 77.9% compared with last year. The Bank was awarded the 2017 “House of the Year in China” by Asia Risk thanks to its eminent role in RMB internationalisation and promoting the building of derivative market in China. The Bank made great efforts in expanding the overseas institutional customers in franchise trading business, and established franchise trading cooperative relationships with 127 institutional customers from 36 countries and regions in the world. In 2017, the volume of franchise foreign exchange settlement and sales hit USD422.8 billion; the volume of franchise foreign exchange trading stood at USD203.4 billion.
6.Asset securitization business. In 2017, the Bank issued seven tranches of securitization programs totaling RMB46,565 million. Among them, two tranches were non-performing credit card loans programs and two non-performing personal loans programs, and these programs helped the Bank with its NPL disposal and the improvement and adjustment of its credit structure; the Bank issued three tranches of residential mortgage securitization programs, thereby effectively supporting the new demands for residential loans.
7.Agency sales. In 2017, sales of funds, treasury bonds and personal insurance products under agency arrangement totaled RMB923.2 billion, RMB65.3 billion and RMB136.4 billion respectively.
Treasury Operations In 2017, the Bank combined the financial trend with the need of liquidity management, flexibly adjusted investment and transaction strategies, rationally arranged for the types and structures of investments, and took multiple measures to improve the profitability of treasury operations.
1.Money market activities. On the RMB money market, the Bank reasonably arranged the lending scale to banking and non-banking financial institutions to enhance the fund use efficiency; it also vigorously developed bond lending business and put existing bonds to good use, thereby realising increase in both scale and returns. On the foreign-currency money market, the Bank endeavoured to generate more returns from fund operations, and increased the proportion of domestic inter-bank lending and borrowing whose returns are relatively higher. In 2017, domestic trading amount in the inter-bank market was RMB26.23 trillion, of which lending amounted to RMB18.58 trillion. The transaction volume in foreign-currency money markets recorded USD780.2 billion.
2.Investment. With respect to investment in RMB bonds, the Bank, following the trend of market interest rate, scientifically formulated investment strategies, made unified arrangement for investment progress and pace, and improved the structure of underlying assets in investment; it also enlarged investment in government bonds and treasury bonds which occupy less economic capital, and actively supported the real economic development.With respect to investment in foreign currency bonds, against the higher cost of foreign currency funds and the narrower net interest margin of bond portfolio as a result of interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank stepped up active management of foreign currency bond portfolio, increased frequency of band operations and added spread earnings; it achieved significant development in the market making of foreign currency bonds, and served 44 Chinese inter-bank institutions, markedly enhancing the Bank’s influence in inter-bank foreign currency bond market.
3.Financing. In line with its fund operation and liquidity management needs, the Bank rationally arranged the scale and structure of its active liabilities including inter-bank borrowing from the inter-bank market, short-term time deposits with other banks and large-value CDs in order to enhance the supporting capacity of diverse liabilities to asset business growth.
E-finance The Bank advanced its e-ICBC 3.0 internet-based finance development strategies on all fronts, played a guiding role in leading innovation, upgraded and improved the overall architecture of internet-based finance with the information platform, open platform and service platform ICBC Link, online intelligent financial transaction service platform ICBC Mobile and integrated e-commerce and financial platform ICBC Mall as the main pillars and covering financial services, e-commerce, payment and social life. The Bank continued to render better customer experience, improved its risk prevention and control system to inject new vigor into the business transformation of the Bank.
1.ICBC Mobile. The Bank launched the fingerprint and face scanning login and payment functions, and one-key transfer, QR code scanning login on internet banking, inquiry without login and other products and services. With professional security as the goal, the Bank rolled out the Mobile Banking Security Center, featuring online security check, account security lock and other functions. Thus active, intelligent, scenario-based and visible security service experience can be provided. The new version of corporate internet banking achieved the comprehensive upgrade in transaction procedure streamlining, convenient operation and friendly interaction by launching customized frequently-used functions, simplified menu, intelligent search and other functions. At the end of 2017, the number of ICBC Mobile customers reached 282 million.
2.ICBC Mall. The Bank delivered better customer experience on the mobile clients of ICBC Mall, and developed the functions exclusive to the mobile client, including red packets sharing, fingerprint login, new mobile-client air ticket channel and sharing to social platforms. The Bank rolled out asset transaction platform, commodity matchmaking platform, travel mall, refueling and top-up, auto mall, wealth management product mall and other special platforms. The Bank created special business financing scenarios, and achieved new breakthroughs in public welfare and poverty relief, green and health, intelligent life, commodities, etc. The Bank signed contracts with 943 quality green food enterprises, a move enabling ICBC Mall to cover nearly all the green food enterprises with e-commerce operation and service capacity in China. Thus ICBC Mall became one of the most authoritative e-commerce platforms with the most comprehensive ranges of green food. In 2017, ICBC Mall achieved an accumulative transaction amount of RMB1.03 trillion.
3.ICBC Link. The Bank rolled out “I’m right here at ICBC” annual statement big data portrait product, to leverage the big data’s advantages to offer value-added information services. The Bank established an integrated service platform, and went live group messaging tool, all-channel service assessment, private banking statement, paper precious metal transfer and other important functions to assist customer managers in giving better services. The Bank rolled out service public accounts covering 2,550 scenarios, and provided various convenient services such as UCAR, ofo bike sharing, umbrella sharing, payment of traffic fines, ETC travel fee-deduction notice, social security payment, campus card top-up and payment by scanning QR on VEM. At the end of 2017, ICBC Link had 114 million registered users.
4.Financing product line. The Bank adopted the whole-industry-chain financing model, extended the financing services to the end of industries, and met the financing demands of suppliers, dealers and the end individual customers. The Bank innovatively launched the financing product pledged with the assets in the online bill pool, further expanded the types of pledge for online pledge by corporate customers, and improved the functions in the internet financing system. At the end of 2017, internet financing balance exceeded RMB840 billion.
5.Payment product line. The Bank rolled out the first QR code payment product in the banking industry, covering catering, shopping, express delivery and other small-amount payment scenarios. It also cooperated with Beijing and Wuhan subway groups on mobile payment, making it the first commercial bank in China that supports paying for subway ride by scanning QR code on mobile phone. The payment scenarios of “ICBC e-Payment” further expanded, covering scenarios such as payment of water, electricity, gas and heating bills and social security, thus making customers’ lives more convenient. The Bank is the first in the banking industry to launch a 7x24-trading wealth management product for corporate customers, “Corporate e-Moneylink”, on which corporate customers can conduct wealth management and investment on internet platforms.
6.Investment and wealth management product line. The Bank innovatively launched the intelligent investment consultation product AI Investment in wealth management, which applied AI and big data technologies and quantitative investment models, and rendered customers with fund portfolio recommendation and dynamic position adjustment and other services. The Bank continued to improve the internet banking channel, added functions such as foreign exchange trading quotation, interest rate swaps, etc., and further increased the types of agency commodities trading for corporate customers. It had completed the building of a leading agency trading system for corporate customers in China which has multiple channels, a complete range of product lines, multiple models and whole-process management.
Channel Development and Service Enhancement 1.The geographic distribution of outlets was constantly improved. The Bank continued to focus on “adjusting structure, improving business forms and efficiency”, and highlighted key branches, cities and outlets. It formulated the Plan for Improving Outlet Distribution for 2018-2020, constantly increased the match between outlet resources and customer demands, financial resources, and enhanced the capacity of service supply to key regions and main customer segments. It sped up the formulation of outlets community-based management system, and built bigger, better and stronger core outlets while scaling-down, refining and activating small-sized outlets to realize the synergy and complementation of the outlets in terms of business forms and functions.At the end of 2017, the Bank had 16,092 outlets, 27,196 self-service banks and 95,043 ATMs whose trading volume amounted to RMB11,861.1 billion.
2.Intelligent service model was popularized at outlets comprehensively. The Bank made smooth progress in building intelligent outlets, continued to improve intelligent service processes and functions and drove the transformation of marketing services at outlets. It added the menu fuzzy inquiry, account opening for enterprises, face-recognition-assisted card issuance, security medium management and other intelligent service functions. It researched, developed and rolled out ATM for passbooks, portable intelligent terminal, upgraded intelligent receiving machine and other new equipment, which effectively improved customer experience in intelligent services.
3.The outlets’ transformation towards integrated online and offline development was pushed ahead. The Bank continued to diversify and improve the entrances of new channels and related tools such as channel-based QR code, outlet WiFi, outlet mini programs, launched joint promotional activities for new products, and set up a fresh three-dimensional marketing model characterized by promotions on multiple interfaces such as staff, outlet, self-service equipment and mobile applications, and interconnections both online and offline.
4.The service was enhanced. Focusing on the overarching objective of “bank to the satisfaction of customers”, the Bank improved the customers’ satisfaction and experience by taking specific measures such as refining mechanisms, strengthening management and optimizing experience. As a result, the Bank steadily improved its service efficiency and services, and enjoyed better reputation among customers.
Internationalized and Diversified Operation The Bank steadily pushed forward the global network layout and channel construction and deepened the extension of network of overseas institutions. The Bank’s global service network is maturing with Prague Branch and Mongolia Representative Office opening for business officially and Zurich Branch in Switzerland granted the license. Saint Petersburg Branch of Bank ICBC (JSC) and the Houston-based institution affiliated to ICBC (USA) started business successively, further enhancing the layout of local service network overseas. The Bank also unveiled ICBC Asset Management (Global) Company Limited in Hong Kong, creating a unified global asset management platform for the Group. As at the end of 2017, the Bank established 419 institutions in 45 countries and regions and indirectly covered 20 African countries as a shareholder of Standard Bank. The Bank also established correspondent banking relationships with 1,545 overseas banking institutions in 143 countries and regions, making its service network covering six continents and important international financial centers around the world. Among which, the Bank maintained 129 institutions in 20 countries and regions along the Belt and Road. Total assets of overseas institutions (including overseas branches, subsidiaries and investments in Standard Bank) of the Bank were USD358,597 million, an increase of USD52,147 million or 17.0% from the end of the previous year, and they accounted for 9.0% of the Group’s total assets, increased by 0.2 percentage points. Profit before tax during the reporting period was USD3,918 million, increasing by USD671 million or 20.7% compared with the end of the previous year and representing 7.0% of the Group’s profit before tax, increased by 0.8 percentage points. Total loans amounted to USD216,360 million, rising by USD40,489 million or 23.0%, and due to customers totaled USD120,424 million, increasing by USD23,201 million or 23.9%.
The Bank further consolidated the comprehensive subsidiaries’ profit contribution to and strategic synergies with the Group. ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management enhanced the strategic synergy of the Group, continuously strengthened its core competitiveness in research and investment, kept expanding the product line and improving customer service level, and maintained a steady growth in asset management scale. ICBC Leasing achieved a steady growth in businesses, maintained stable asset quality, and continued to improve its business performance. ICBC-AXA achieved a stable growth in premium income and ensured continuous improvement of its business structure. ICBC-AXA worked hard to realize refined management and scientific decision-making.ICBC International’s four major businesses, i.e. investment banking, sales and transaction, investment management and asset management developed in line with the business development strategies of the Group. Its business performance grew rapidly and its brand image and market influence enhanced significantly.ICBC Investment, as one of the first commercial banks in China to conduct debt-for-equity swap, gave full play to the advantage of integrated financial services and effectively promoted the implementation of the market-oriented debt-for-equity swap project.
IT-based Banking Development The whole group’s safe production and operation was better managed. Therefore, despite the business volume has increased a lot, the Bank still reported the historically best and safest operation of information systems, and achieved normal local operation of data centers across years for the first time. The Bank carried forward the arrangements for the business system monitoring and intelligent operation and maintenance platform, popularized a series of tools on automatic operation and maintenance of changes, e.g. automatic deployment of system environment, and deployed the automatic switch tools in case of emergencies, e.g. database switch. The analysis and mining of production, operation and maintenance data was launched together with the realization of operation and maintenance service value in an effort to achieve progress in business and technological management. The Bank implemented the China Cyber Safety Act, set up the ICBC network and information safety notification mechanism, continued development of the information safety monitoring and response platform (SOC), establishment of the ICBC attack prevention drill system, and all-around enhancement of overall safety protection ability.
The Bank accelerated the research and application of new technologies and the transformation of IT architecture. It set up seven innovation labs, made overall layout across each frontier of FinTech, actively explored application scenarios such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and cloud computing, put in place the blockchain platform of Guizhou Anti-poverty Fund, applied the blockchain technology in promoting the transparent management of the funds for construction of Xiong’an New Area, rolled out “AI Investment”, an intelligent investment adviser, and built the “ICBC Internet of Things Services Platform”. While continuously promoting the transformation of IT architecture, the Bank became the first one in the banking industry to develop and use the platform cloud, and combined with the infrastructure cloud and the software-defined network to realize the dynamic management of basic computing resources and application resources. What’s more, the Bank carried out the optimization and improvement of the host’s application architecture, increased distributed application, developed own big data and cloud computing, and deepened the planning and design of IT blueprint, laying a foundation for the development of the new-generation smart banking information system (ECOS).
The Bank pushed forward innovative services that cover all customers, all channels and all products. It propelled the upgrade of the internet-based financial strategy from e-ICBC 2.0 to the smart banking e-ICBC 3.0, successfully popularized the new-generation corporate internet banking, unified the “ICBC e Payment” brand, and made debut the “ICBC Easy Loan” product. It quickened the development of the internet-based financial ecosphere, released a new version of ICBC e Life, completed the development of a unified “Cloud Quick Pay” APP, and launched an innovative digital banking called “ICBC Xiao Bai”. The development of systems for internationalization and diversification was advanced; BRAINS, the new overseas anti-money laundering system, was rolled out at 23 overseas institutions; Bank ICBC (JSC) became the first RMB clearing bank of ICBC using an overseas platform’s core system; and ICBC Leasing released the new-generation core system for leasing business.
2017 marked the fourth consecutive year for the Bank to rank the first in the banking industry in the information technology supervisory rating of CBRC. The Bank had four research findings that won the 2017 IT Risk Management Research Project Award of CBRC, and eight scientific and technological achievements that won the Banking Technological Development Award of PBC. The Bank obtained 50 patents from the State Intellectual Property Office, and the total number of patents owned by the Bank increased to 506.
Risk Management In 2017, the Bank continued to push for development of the enterprise risk management system, upgraded risk management technologies and methods and enhanced the capacity of risk pre-judgment and dynamic adjustment capabilities, so as to make enterprise risk management more forward-looking and effective. The Bank improved the enterprise risk management system, strengthened development of the three lines of defense for risk management, intensified the management of risk appetite and risk limits and researched and monitored cross-financial risks in accordance with the latest regulatory requirements. The Group’s consolidated risk management was properly carried out to boost the risk management capability of non-banking subsidiaries and advance unified management of tier-two subsidiaries. The credit risk measurement system was improved continuously for higher accuracy and stability, with internal ratings applied more broadly. The Group’s market risk management was boosted to a higher level, with focus on strengthening market risk management of overseas institutions, fully implementing product control requirements, deepening risk management of the wealth management business and intensifying investment management of wealth management and market risk limit management. Country risk management was continuously deepened to strengthen country risk monitoring and analysis and limit management, enhance the capability of sovereign risk management and provide strong supports for implementing the Bank’s internationalization strategy.
Social Responsibility Taking the social responsibility objective of “Excellence for You — Excellent services to clients, Maximum returns to shareholders, Real success for our people, Great contribution to society”, the Bank is committed to serving the common interests in economic and social development and promoting sustainable economic development and social progress. Thanks to these efforts, the Bank won wide recognition from various social sectors and such awards as the “Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility”, the “Best Social Responsibility Financial Institution Award of the Year”, and the “Annual Bank with Excellent Social Contribution of the Year”.