Global reach, resources and reputation for ICBC

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd has recently been granted a branch license to operate in the United Kingdom by the British financial services regulator.

With the new license, ICBC will enjoy greater lending and financing capacity in the UK.

Many insiders view the license as further proof the Chinese bank is increasingly recognized by international banking authorities for its comprehensive strength.

Founded in 1984, ICBC has developed into a top global listed bank with an excellent customer base, diversified business structure, strong innovation capabilities and market competitiveness.

The bank provides comprehensive financial products and services to more than 4.7 million corporate customers, some 430 million personal customers using its advanced e-banking network and over 17,000 institutions worldwide.

Not just the largest

Not just the largest bank in China, ICBC is also the biggest among its international peers by key indicators in the banking industry such as deposits, loans, total assets, tier-1 capital, revenues and profits.

In 2013, ICBC was selected as one of the global systemically important banks. In 2014, it retained its position in first place among the top 1,000 world banks as rated by the British financial magazine The Banker.

Among the Global 2,000 listed by US magazine Forbes, ICBC is the largest enterprise in the world.

However, being big is not all the bank wants.

With the vision of building a globally leading bank with the best profitability, performance and prestige, the bank has been moving ahead with transformation and structural adjustment. It tries to achieve a tradeoff between providing a stronger impetus to profit growth in the immediate future and paving the way for long-term development.

Among all the initiatives, its overseas expansion is one of the most successful.

Global service network

There have been further improvements in the bank's overseas service network this year - its branches in Peru and New Zealand officially opened for business, and the bank also signed an agreement to buy a 60 percent stake of Standard Bank Plc.

Yi Huiman, president of ICBC, said that if approved by authorities, ICBC will be the controlling shareholder of Standard Bank Plc, which will then become the Chinese bank's overseas flagship for bulk commodities, currencies and capital markets

ICBC already has a much-improved overseas operation network with 331 overseas institutions in 40 countries and regions as well as agency relations with 1,767 banks globally.

ICBC has extended its service to six continents - Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, Australia and North America. Its service network has indirectly expanded to 18 African countries through its holdings in Standard Bank of South Africa.

By the end of July, 2014, the total assets of its overseas institutions totaled $232.5 billion, an increase of 11.1 percent compared with the beginning of the year.

The non-performing loans ratio of its overseas institutions was 0.48 percent, demonstrating the bank's leading position in asset quality among its international peers.

The bank's cross-border RMB business continued to see rapid and healthy growth, with the business volume increasing 70 percent to 1.7 trillion yuan ($276.9 billion) in the first half of the year.

The Beijing-based bank has expanded its services to core target markets and China's trade partners, and is more capable of serving customers in various countries, which greatly enhanced its service capacity worldwide.

Overseas localization

While strengthening its overseas network, ICBC has shifted the focus of its international strategy to localized, mainstream and differentiated development. The change enabled the bank to make greater contributions to local economic and social development of target countries and their bilateral trade and investment with China.

With great development potential and competitive benefits, ICBC has become a magnet for local talent, helping local governments tackle employment issues.

"Our bank now has 11,000 employees overseas, and only 700 of them are from China," said Jiang Jianqing, ICBC board chairman.

The bank places great importance on the integration of cultures. It respects and facilitates the various religious, cultural and even dining habits of its overseas staff and promotes mutual respect and cooperation between foreign and Chinese employees.

ICBC Indonesia has a special prayer room for Islam employees, and launched bilingual learning programs to help local employees and their Chinese colleagues better understand each other.

ICBC Sydney holds a monthly staff party and organizes lectures on Chinese and Western cultures to help promote cultural exchanges.

To better serve local economies, ICBC's overseas institutions had extended $126.9 billion in loans by the end of July, an increase of 17.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the bank has been extending its key product lines to foreign markets, creating a series of foreign services such as FX clearing, cross-border RMB settlement, global cash management, investment banking, asset management, precious metal trading and private banking.

ICBC also adopted localized practices individually tailored to each overseas institution to meet the needs of its specific market, and legal and regulatory environment.

By the end of July, ICBC had some 4,000 global cash management customers in more than 50 countries. Its cross-border RMB transactions approached 6.7 trillion yuan with an RMB settlement network extending to 75 countries and regions.

To improve its service capacity in the local market, ICBC Canada offered professional aid to a Canadian provincial government in the issuance of 2.5 billion yuan-dominated AAA level offshore bonds in Hong Kong in 2013. It was the first foreign government to have a try on dim sum bonds, which are issued outside of China but denominated in RMB rather than local currencies.

Headquartered in Luxembourg and operating in several European countries, ICBC Europe has been providing Chinese and European customers with a variety of financial products and services, especially in RMB business.

ICBC Europe is now an important provider of diverse RMB products in local markets including deposits, loans, settlement in renminbi as well as foreign exchange settlement and sale. In 2014, ICBC Europe was awarded Best Bank in Luxembourg by the monthly magazine Euromoney.

As the first RMB clearing bank outside China designated by the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, ICBC Singapore boasted the RMB clearing volume of over 10 trillion yuan by April 8, 2014.

Its peak volume on a single day increased from 2 billion yuan to close to 300 billion yuan, significantly supporting the fast and healthy growth of Singapore's offshore RMB market.

ICBC also strives to implement the organic unification of economic and social responsibilities, establishing the image of a responsible bank in each country.

It operates by supporting the protection of the environment and resources, participates in community services and runs charitable programs.

Its branches in Thailand, New York and Sydney provide financial support to environmentally friendly industries such as clean energy development, emission reduction and seawater desalination.

ICBC Malaysia has made donations to a local retired policemen's union for several consecutive years. ICBC Vietnam financially aided road resurfacing for a local village and established an ICBC charitable foundation in Laos that contributes to programs for public well-being in the country.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn