工商银行公布2007年度业绩

Breakthroughs in overseas expansion and establishment of integrated operations

In 2007, ICBC made significant progress in overseas expansion. Through the opening of new branches and through acquisitions, ICBC is establishing an international business network that is focused on emerging markets and integrated with the Bank’s domestic operations. The network covers major international financial centres and major economic and trading partners of China. In 2007, ICBC completed the acquisition and business relaunch of PT Bank Halim Indonesia. The Bank also opened a Moscow subsidiary bank and received formal approval from the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority for the establishment of a Doha branch. ICBC also proceeded with the acquisitions of a 20% interest in Standard Bank Group in South Africa and a 79.93% stake in Seng Heng Bank in Macau during the year. ICBC becomes the single largest shareholder of Standard Bank and the transaction was the largest foreign investment by China so far. In addition, ICBC received approvals from the China Banking Regulatory Commission and is making steady progress towards seeking approval from foreign regulators to establish branches in New York and Sydney and a subsidiary bank in Dubai. As at the end of 2007, ICBC has 112 overseas branches and subsidiaries, and has established corresponding bank relationships with 1,349 banks in 122 countries and regions.

In November 2007, a financial leasing company solely owned by the Bank was officially established, representing another step in the development of the Bank’s integrated business operations. With commercial banking as its core business, ICBC will continue to explore new modes of business expansion into areas including securities, insurance and other related industries with a view to enhancing synergies among its different businesses.

Further strengthening of management capabilities   

In 2007, in addition to a substantial increase in operating income, ICBC also effectively controlled its operating costs. The Bank’s cost-to-income ratio declined by 1.7 percentage points from 2006 to 34.7% in 2007, a level considered low by domestic and international standards.

At the same time, ICBC developed its own comprehensive risk management system during the year. It launched a credit rating optimization system for corporate clients, which is capable of determining the default probability and loss ratio for individual non-retail loans, thereby enhancing the accuracy of credit rating results. With this system, ICBC has met the requirements of the foundation internal rating-based approach (F-IRB) for measuring credit risk under the Basel II accord. The Bank’s quantitative risk assessment technology is close to the advanced international standard. This progress is a key step for ICBC to implement the advanced internal-based ratings approach (A-IRB) by the end of 2010.

During the year, ICBC strengthened its market risk management capabilities by further improving its procedures for market risk identification, quantitative measurement, limit management, reporting and market value estimation and emergency procedures for handling major market risks. The Bank also proactively analysed new patterns in its entire liquidity flow as well as changes in market trends, enabling the Bank to capitalize on market opportunities to implement optimal liquidity arrangements and interbank funding strategies, with a view to maximizing return on funds while ensuring that payment requirements for the entire Bank are met. In addition, ICBC further improved its operational risk monitoring, alert and reporting mechanism, maintaining its leadership in operational risk management among its domestic peers.

Mr. Jiang Jianqing, Chairman of ICBC, said: “ICBC has maintained its position as one of the five largest banks in the world in terms of market capitalization since its listing. The Bank has also won widespread recognition for new accomplishments in its reform and development and received numerous awards from reputable international media, including ‘Best Bank of China’, the ‘Best State-owned Retail Bank of China’, ‘Best Sub-Custodian Bank in China’, ‘Best Cash Management’, ‘Most Profitable Bank in Asia’ and ‘Global Deal of the Year 2007’. Moody’s Investors Services upgraded the Bank’s long-term credit rating to ‘A1’. Starting in 2008, ICBC will issue a Corporate Responsibility Report to enable the public oversight of our initiatives to be a good corporate citizen that emphasises respect of the law, credibility, charitable activities and the promotion of a society in harmony, and our contribution to the sustainable development of our economy and society. ICBC is committed to achieving improvement in corporate valuation, shareholder return, customer and staff benefit and in our corporate image. Our goal is to develop the Bank as the most profitable, best quality and the most respected modern financial enterprise.”

Mr. Yang Kaisheng, President of ICBC, said: “The Bank will continue to implement its strategic transformation in 2008 to ensure sustainable profit growth. The Bank will prudently develop its lending business, streamline its industry credit policies and regional credit policies to ensure healthy and coordinated development of its lending business for different industries and regions. The Bank will step up efforts in the prevention and management of risk related to industries with high pollution, high energy consumption and excess production capacity as well as credit risk related to environmental issues and the real estate sector. At the same time, ICBC will continue to implement its leading retail bank strategy. In addition to exploring the high-end wealth management market, ICBC is striving to ensure coordinated development of its deposit and wealth management businesses and accelerate its entry into the private banking arena. In addition, ICBC will further harness its leading position in the credit card market in terms of both the number of cards in issue and card transactions.

“ICBC will continue to develop its treasury business to enhance efficiency in managing its own funds. The Bank will further enrich its product offering innovatively to maintain its top position in terms of income growth and market share for its intermediary business. The Bank will further develop its international business and integrated business operations to enhance overall competitiveness and establish an integrated platform for its domestic and international operations. ICBC will proactively seek opportunities to expand into the licensed investment banking, securities and insurance markets. In 2008, ICBC will establish a strategy implementation mechanism and a complete and systematic scheme of quantitative competitiveness indicator measurements. The Bank will also strive to enhance its service quality and brand image and further develop its distribution channels. It will also redouble its efforts to develop its corporate culture and implement measures to meet its social responsibilities, while at the same time enhancing overall core competitiveness.”

Forward-looking statements

This press release includes the "forward-looking statements" on the Bank’s financial condition and operating results. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, and are based on the current forecasts, assumptions, estimations and expectations for the company and the industry in which the company operates. Unless otherwise stipulated by law, the company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that the expectations will be proved to be correct. Investors are cautioned that actual results could differ from those forecasts.