Our Advantages

The year 2021 was a milestone in the history of the Communist Party of China (“CPC” or the “Party”) and the country as we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party. ICBC adhered to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, earnestly implemented the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, stayed committed to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, and continued to uphold the “48-character” guideline. Based on the reality of the new development stage, we applied the new development philosophy, actively served and integrated into the new development paradigm, responded to COVID-19 and pursued financial security and business development in a well-coordinated way, and contributed to high-quality economic development while striving to pursue our own high-quality development. As a result, we delivered a solid performance to celebrate the Party’s centenary.

We kept in mind national priorities and did our best to serve high-quality development. In line with the new development paradigm and the requirements for the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan, we implemented the guidance of macro policies, and promoted highlevel coordination of investment and financing in terms of quality, scale, pace and price. We continued to refine financial services in key areas and weak links, and led the market in terms of credit scale in manufacturing, technological innovation and green sectors, with the growth of inclusive finance loans topping the rankings. To promote common prosperity, we set up special agencies to serve rural revitalization, launched the brand “ICBC Xingnongtong”, and delivered helpful assistance to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and industries in need. We strengthened global service synergy, and actively promoted opening-up at a higher level and the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative. We ensured financial support for epidemic prevention and control, energy supply, flood control and relief, and vigorously built up our image as a responsible large bank.

We adhered to the bottom-line thinking and spared no effort to promote high-quality risk control. We continued to plan ahead, see the big from the small, remedy in time and draw inferences. By doing so we improved the enterprise risk management system, and helped maintain economic and financial stability. We planned in a well-coordinated way, and managed with clear accounting. We improved the risk identification, early-warning and risk mitigation mechanism across the entire chain, and coordinated efforts to guard against and control traditional and emerging risks, risks on and off the balance sheet, domestic and overseas, online and offline. We tightened control over all kinds of credit risks, and increased efforts to improve the asset quality, with continuous improvement in the operating capacity of risk assets, and simultaneous decline in the NPL ratio and overdue loan ratio. We stayed alert to the volatility of the financial market, adhered to prudent trading strategies, strictly controlled the risk exposure, and kept the market risk at an overall stable level.

We advanced reform more vigorously and strived to achieve high-quality development. We focused on improving the governance system and capacity, and deepened the organic integration of Party leadership and corporate governance. We pushed forward the arrangements of “bringing out our strengths to make up for our weaknesses and laying a solid foundation and base.” Headways were made in our implementation of key strategies such as the No.1 Personal Bank, the Preferred Bank for Foreign Exchange Business, Sharpening Competitive Edge in Key Regions and Urban-Rural Collaborative Development. We accelerated the bankwide digital transformation. Our intelligent banking ecosystem ECOS project was awarded PBC’s special award of the “FinTech Development Awards”, and our data management capability was given the highest rating by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Last year, we delivered financial services for the China International Import Expo, the China Import and Export Fair, the China International Fair for Trade in Services and the China International Consumer Products Expo. We initiated the China-Europe Business Council, and promoted the development of Belt and Road Bankers Roundtable (“BRBR”). We played an active part in international governance of green finance and launched the Beijing Initiative on Climate-Friendly Banks.

We made every effort to promote the head start of the new development plan. We acted swiftly and efficiently to implement key strategies and tasks, with notable achievements made. We performed well in major operating indicators and we became “stronger, better and bigger.”

The foundation for strong development was further consolidated. Our capital strength was further strengthened. The capital adequacy ratio exceeded 18%,one of the highest among the large banks in the world. The balance of provisions surpassed RMB600.0 billion, and the allowance to NPLs rebounded to over 200% for the first time in the past seven years. For the ninth consecutive year, the Bank ranked first among Global 2000 by Forbes and the Top 1000 World Banks by The Banker.

The quality of business performance was further improved. Our operating efficiency continued to improve, with the return on assets (“ROA”) and return on equity (“ROE”) reaching 1.02% and 12.15% respectively. Through meticulous management and internal potential tapping, the change in our net interest margin (“NIM”) was better than most peers, and the cost-to-income ratio was 26.36%, lower than most large banks in the world.

Our scale merits were further augmented. Our assets exceeded RMB35 trillion, operating income topped RMB860.0 billion, and net profit surpassed RMB350.0 billion, consolidating our lead in the banking sector. We maintained the first place in assets, capital, deposits and loans among banks in the world, and the first place in market value and total dividends among Chinese banks.