ICBC Sees Improvement in Business OperationThe Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China's largest commercial bank, said Friday, January 12, it made remarkable improvement in business operations in 2000, with its efforts in promoting efficiency and reforms.Jiang Jianqing, president of the ICBC, said at the bank's annual work meeting opened here Friday that in 2000 the ICBC realized profits totaling 5.06 billion yuan, an increase of 1.1 billion yuan from the previous year, which was the best business result in the past six years. Jiang said that last year the ICBC reinforced efforts in asset-liability management, and drew on its advanced capital remittance system to improve services for enterprises and financial institutions. As a result, the bank's corporate and inter-bank deposits for the year increased 156.9 billion yuan and 112.3 billion yuan, respectively, on an annual basis. According to statistics, the ICBC extended loans in RMB totaling 280.7 billion yuan in 2000, which were 35.4 billion yuan more than in the previous year and basically met the demand of enterprises and other circles of society for capital. Jiang said the bank's loan structure was further rationalized in the past year, the ICBC granted 70.9 billion yuan in project loans to support infrastructure construction and corporate technological advancement, 87.6 billion yuan in housing loans and 14.3 billion yuan in individual consumption loans. He stressed that the non-performing rate of the newly increased loans was controlled at the lowest level in history. By the end of 2000, the bank's outstanding deposits in RMB was 3.35 trillion yuan, an increase of more than 340 billion yuan from at the beginning of the year; deposits in foreign exchange increased to 5.2 billion U.S. dollars, up US$2.2 billion from the previous year. The ICBC also made a great progress in developing electronic banking business, including on-line banking, telephone banking, corporate banking, mobile banking and other e-banking services. Total transaction of the bank's e-banking business reached 1.94 trillion yuan, accounting for 3.1 percent of that of the bank's traditional business. The bank's innovative and intermediate business also developed rapidly. It successfully acquired the Hongkong Union Bank, a company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; established China's first bills trading department managed by a commercial bank, which had a trading volume of 25 billion yuan by the end of the year. Its foreign exchange intermediate business also grew rapidly, with the amount of international settlement reaching US$66.4 billion and the amount of foreign exchange trading totaling US$35.6 billion, up 33 percent and 25 percent, respectively, from the previous year. Jiang said that this year the bank will continue its efforts to promote operating efficiency, reinforce risk control measures and continue to develop intermediate services and new business. |
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