In this year, as the first Chinese “Equator bank”, Industrial Bank (IB) has won the recognition and affirmation of relevant institutions both at home and abroad in the field of green finance with a number of outstanding achievements in practicing the sustainable development strategy, performing its social responsibilities in an active way, and promoting green finance vigorously.
As learnt by the reporter, the bank became the only winner of “Carbon-value Social Citizen Award” at the Fifth World Economical and Environmental Conference. Then on November 23, it won the “Low-carbon Pioneer Enterprise Prize” at the “Summit on the Development of Low-carbon China in the 21st Century” held in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and General Manager Liang Pingrui of the Sustainable Finance Department of the Bank become the only winner of the “Best Climate Officer”. Moreover, there came another piece of goods news on November 28, and IB won the “Annual Green Finance Award” in the appraisal of “Green Medal Prize” held by China Business News .
By the end of October of 2012, the financing balance of green finance of IB has exceeded RMB 110 billion, and the supported green finance projects could save 23.0554 million tons of standard coal across China each year, reduced 66.1855 million tons of carbon dioxide, 879,400 tons of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 14,500 tons of ammonia nitrogen, 43,600 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 6,900 tons of oxynitride, utilized 14.6629 million tons of solid waste in an integrated manner, and saved 255.7906 million tons of water. “The annual emission reduced is equivalent to shutting off 151 thermal power plants of 100 MW or stopping running the 70,000 taxis in Beijing for 45.5 years.”
It is learnt that, in the seven-year course of developing green finance, IB has created many “No.1” cases in the industry with its unremitting efforts and innovation, becoming the forerunner and advocator of green finance practice in the banking industry. For instance, it is the first bank releasing green credit products to support the energy conservation and emission reduction in China, the first bank providing integrated carbon finance service for Chinese enterprises, the first Chinese bank promising to the public to adopt the “Equator Principles”, the first bank establishing an institution specialized in sustainable finance, and the first bank issuing the low-carbon themed credit card.
At present, the green finance businesses of IB covers three major fields of low-carbon economy, recycling economy and ecological economy, supporting a variety of projects in such economic zones as Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Economic Rim, Northeast China, Central China, West China and the Western Taiwan Straits Area. These projects involve improvement of energy efficiency, development and utilization of new energy and renewable energy, carbon emission reduction, sewage treatment and water area control, reduction of sulfur dioxide emission, recycling of solid wastes, and national key energy conservation program. The bank has established its business feature in strengthening green financial support in the field of real economy.
The director of the Sustainable Finance Department of IB indicated to the reporter, “the bank will continue grasping the opportunities upon the fast development of green finance and relying on its established competitive edges in the field to support and cultivate the Chinese green industry, guide the green development of enterprises and lead personal green consumption. In 2013, the green finance business will continue growing in large scale and the green finance products and services will also witness sustained innovation.” As the first “Equator bank” in China, IB will keep innovating in the products and services of green finance and improving its own management to environmental and social risks, and build an all-course professional financial service supplier covering a wide range and an all-sided “green bank” in the new vast blue sea of green finance.
As a Considerate Service Consultant of SMEs
“Sending a further journey after helping mount on a horse” has become the concept of the banking industry in providing services to SMEs. Simple credit services have long failed to meet the development needs of both banks and enterprises. The services required by SMEs urgently include the utilization of credit capital, brand operation, control of sales terminal, and improvement of management for IPO, etc.
A garment company in Quanzhou, which mainly engages in the production of business suits, has established stable credit cooperation with Industrial Bank (IB) in the recent ten years. Years ago, considering the idea that the company intended to achieve further development, IB gave the proposal of regulating corporate operation and establishing a modern enterprise system by way of IPO. Then, IB arranged the organization of an IPO team, training of personnel, and estimation of IPO cost and expenditure without a stop, and actively contacted such intermediaries as brokerages, overseas and domestic accountant firms, and law firms. In 2009, the company got listed on the HKEx successfully, raising more than HKD 1 billion. It became the first brand of men's clothes listed in Hong Kong. IB appeared on the cover of the company's prospectus as its exclusive domestic financial consultant.
This is only an example where the “IB Open Sesame” SME IPO Program boosts the development of SMEs. This kind of consultant-oriented service has helped more and more SMEs to grow stronger and bigger. The “Open Sesame” Program of IB provides corresponding traditional products and innovative services in particular in line with the different business features and business demands of enterprises at the different stages of their growth, namely start-up, growth and maturity, with a view to propelling the IPO of SMEs. It provides one-stop financial service solutions integrating “creditor's right + stock right + IPO”, covering such aspects as fund settlement, debt financing, equity financing, capital operation, development planning, wealth management, and corporate governance. By the end of October 2012, 3,607 outstanding SMEs have joined the program, with a credit balance reaching RMB 61.2 billion.
In the meantime, under the circumstance of restricted scale of newly-increased credit, IB has kept intensifying its support to SMEs in recent years and diversifying the product lines. The bank released such innovative products including “IB enhancement loan”, “IB Quick Loan” and “IB Point-based Loan” in succession so as to effectively help SMEs to extend their financing channels, reduce their financing cost, and provide all-sided financing services to them.
In terms of detailed services, IB has kept simplifying the process of examination and approval to provide faster services. The bank adopts a relatively independent approval mechanism for financial service solutions and combines the functions of the two posts, product manager and credit extension examiner, into one to improve the service efficiency. In addition, it employs the management model of differentiated risk control, which showcases the operation characteristics of “unified credit extension standard, professional risk management and hierarchical authorization and approval” prominently. The bank practices the differentiated risk tolerance. Considering the characteristics of the management over credit risks of SMEs, it imposes more risk tolerance to small-sized enterprises to an appropriate extent to relieve the front-line officers of the operating department from worrying about the loans that they extend to small-sized enterprises.