On June 28, Industrial Economic Research and Consulting Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “IERCC”) – a research institute with independent legal personality under the investment of members of the Industrial Bank group, announced its establishment in Shanghai.
IERCC is the first professional research institute in the Chinese banking industry, which is founded in the form of corporation and operates independently in accordance with the market-oriented mechanism, and the first attempt that Industrial Bank (IB) has made in making innovation and breakthrough in system and mechanism in the area of research. It marks that IB is accelerating its efforts in pushing forward integrated business operation.
It is learnt that the company aims at offering such superior and efficient services as research support, financial engineering and data mining, with its research areas covering macro-economy, interest rate, exchange rate, bulk commodity, first-kind asset allocation, industry and credit, etc. “Different from the existing research institutes in the market now, our research areas will cover all multi-level financial markets such as monetary market, fixed-income market, equity market, and bulk commodity”, said Lu Zhengwei, Chief Economist of IB, known as the “oracle”, who has joined IERCC.
President Huang Yuchen of IERCC indicates that the company will, based on the practice of financial reform and development in China, provide professional and high-value intellectual support for the transformation and development of the Chinese banking industry and maturity and improvement of financial market in China with its professional research services, opening a new model for financial services to the real economy. The existing signed financial institutions of IB bank-bank platform will take the first chance to enjoy the research services of the company.
As revealed in the 2014 annual report of IB, at the end of 2014, the total number of signed customers of its bank-bank platform hit 575, of which 474 ones were accessible online, and there were more than 34,000 banking outlets connected by the platform. A banking analyst believes that research creates value, and based on the customer group of the bank-bank platform, IERCC boasts a large customer base upon its establishment which is impossible to achieve for other research institutes in the domestic banking industry. With such prominent first-mover advantages, the company enjoys a good market prospect.
Nevertheless, IERCC does not limit itself to the positioning. “IERCC is committed to becoming a first-rate new high-end think-tank in the Chinese finance industry, building a new platform for innovative design and sales service of financial products, and cultivating the new drive in the analysis and mining of big data and promotion of application in banks.” At the unveiling ceremony, President Li Renjie of IB expressed the great wish put on IERCC by the parent company when mentioning the development direction of the company. In fact, President Li indicated at the IB Performance Meeting 2014 and First Quarter of 2015, “Efforts in research should be intensified to make the banking smarter and banking services more forward-looking. We intend to consolidate our research resources and put them into market-based operation, so as to provide intellectual support for the long-term development of banks. Research in this aspect is not limited to macro-economy, but also gives consideration to micro-economy as well as the assortment, mining and utilization of existing data assets.”
IB, which is generally recognized as the bank with the greatest market-based and innovative genes by the outsiders, is the commercial bank with the largest number of financial licenses now. With a number of subsidiaries and sub-subsidiaries, including Industrial International Trust, Industrial Financial Leasing, Industrial Fund, Industrial Futures, Industrial Consumer Finance, Industrial Wealth Asset Management and Industrial International Trust Asset Management, IB has grown into a modern financial service group focusing on the principal banking businesses and covering trust, lease, fund, futures, assets management, consumer finance, etc., basically forming its diversified business pattern and reaching a certain scale in its integrated business operation.
The establishment of IERCC also continues its market-based gene and multi-license operation advantages of the bank. President Li indicated: “For a long period, our bank has always laid great importance on research, grasping the macro-economic trend, catching market opportunities and achieving great development of the bank through research. The establishment of a research company is based on the integrated financial development tendency and the increasingly booming demands of customers for integrated financial services. Meanwhile, it is also an important practice that our bank, relying on the multi-license and group-based business advantages, consolidates our own research resources and those of our member institutions, puts into independent operation through market-oriented mechanism, converts research into productivity, and explores diversified and integrated business operation.”
Based on analysis, some insiders believe that the established IERCC offers a new channel for IB Group to achieve light-asset and efficient development, and it is both an attempt that the bank makes in seeking transformation and development under the New Normal of economy and a fruit that the bank harvests in integrated business operation. In addition, it is also a sign for the diversified business development of the bank. In the meantime, it marks that the Chinese banking industry initiates the new model of providing high-value and professional intellectual support in the market-oriented system and mechanism.