—About Mao Haiyan, General Manager of Department of Trade and Finance in IB Shanghai Branch
On September 29th, 2013, Shanghai FTZ was officially started. As a pioneer pilot for national FTA strategy, Shanghai FTZ has made institutional innovations in four aspects, i.e. investment management, trade regulation, financial openness as well as pre-supervision and after supervision, launched a series of reform and innovative initiatives and played a good exemplary role over the past three years.
Financial reform and innovation in Shanghai FTA also provided a broad space for business innovation and important opportunities for transformation and development in the banking industry. IB Shanghai Branch made active response to national FTA strategy, dedicated itself to financial services of Shanghai FTA through constant innovation and pragmatic practice, fulfilled social responsibility of commercial banks, thus became active participants in financial openness and innovation in Shanghai FTZ in an enterprising way. Department of Trade and Finance in IB Shanghai Branch made extraordinary achievements. Its general manager Mao Haiyan received “Annual Best Management Award of Corporate Social Responsibility” at the “Conference for Release of 2015 CSR Report for Chinese Banking Industry and the Commendation for Corporate Social Responsibility” held by China Banking Association (CBA) and was the only manager who got this award in the banking industry of Shanghai.
Devote herself to FTZ business for over 400 days
Mao Haiyan, a post-70s, has been working on trade and finance in IB Shanghai Branch after graduating from University and she is sensitive about policy trend of economic and financial situation and development of reform. On hearing that Shanghai FTZ was inaugurated, Mao immediately realized business opportunities for banks, “the development of the FTZ will bring forth great opportunities for trade and finance, and banks have bright prospects!”
Due to this, Mao Haiyan suggested opening branches in Shanghai FTZ and strengthening product innovation. As the core member of the preparatory group of IB Shanghai FTZ Branch, she fully participated in the preparation of FTA Branch.
In view of “duty-free area within Chinese territory”, a special nature of Shanghai FTZ, bank outlets located in the FTA must set up FTZ ledger accounting unit and operation system, achieve risk isolation from domestic businesses through establishing ledger accounting unit and provide free trade accounts and related services for clients. “Neither experience can be used for reference nor a model be copied, so the difficulty we faced is no less than that of setting up an overseas branch.” Mao said frankly, “At that time we not only needed to ensure the daily normal operation of Department of Trade and Finance, but also worked overtime to speed up the construction of the new system in order to keep pace with business expansion. All of us were under great strain.” Her colleagues remembered that Mao had a tight schedule in those days and desks, walls and cabinets in her office were filled with documents and materials related to FTZ.
In order to set up FTZ ledger accounting unit and operation system, Mao and core staff of the Department took turns to the headquarter and worked there for business development. They worked up to ten hours every day. “We never had a rest on Saturdays, sometimes even on Sundays”. To this day, the arduousness is still fresh in the memory of a senior staff in the Department.
Thanks to joint efforts of both the headquarter and the Branch, ledger accounting unit and operation system and supporting system of IB Shanghai FTZ were successfully completed in a relatively short period of time, during which they built 2 new systems, transformed 15 systems and adjusted parameter configuration of 3 systems. The relatively advanced structure and system developed a unique road in the industry.
The system was put in place through painstaking efforts. Something more demanding was the construction of supporting systems, including product, risk control and financial resources. Mao and her team worked round the clock to complete series documents on risk prudent management of FTZ ledger accounting business, and waited for the final release.
When the central bank was about to conduct the assessment, an accident occurred for which Mao must be confined to bed with comminuted fracture of left kneecap due to a fall. When the day of check and oral reply came, Mao put on the support resolutely, rushed to Shanghai headquarter of the central bank without telling her family, and endured the pain and confidently made a report to the assessment group about IB’s innovative research results. Her thorough understanding of FTZ business, solid professional knowledge as well as dedication in business start-up was unanimously approved by the assessment group, so the project passed series check upon acceptance and risk assessment.
Endless innovations advance FTZ business
After joining FTZ ledger accounting unit, in order to push forward the launching of FTZ business as soon as possible, Mao on crutches immediately carried out FTZ business training, interpreted policy on FTZ, explained FT businesses, and organized nearly a hundred training accumulatively. Based on a thorough knowledge of FTZ business, currently 39 outlets of IB Shanghai Branch has opened FT account system business.
While promoting the development of FTZ business, IB Shanghai Branch made product innovation a powerful engine for business development, and Department of Trade and Finance in Shanghai Branch was responsible for advancing product R&D. It launched a batch of innovative products, covering FTE financial leasing loans, FTE factoring financing, low-risk loans under domestic guarantee, FTE working capital loans, FTE cross-border RMB letter of credit, cross-border non-stop exchange settlement, FT bulk hedging bidding sheet financing and FTN overseas loans which saved the cost of financing for clients and improved the efficiency of financing. Among them, quite a few high-quality innovative products were listed as models for industry communications by Shanghai Banking Regulatory Bureau.
Mao conceded that products were not enough and that both products and customized comprehensive financial solutions were needed to meet the appetites of institutions in the region.
Spring Japan is quartered in Narita, Japan and Spring Airlines Co., Ltd. owns 33% of its shares. According to traditional business model, IB Shanghai branch can only provide it with financing letter of guarantee and loan should be handled by overseas agency or IB’s overseas branch. In order to satisfy financing needs of clients, Mao, proficient in FTZ policies, tried to find a solution based on FTZ accounting system and invented loan business model under domestic guarantee by dint of FTZ platform. IB Shanghai branch provided financing letter of guarantee for Shanghai Spring International Travel Service Co., Ltd., the parent company of Spring Airlines, and financing under FTN of Spring Japan was offered via Shanghai FTZ Branch. Then Spring Japan paid the loan with its overseas fund on expiry. This business opened up a new and convenient financing channel for clients.
As Shanghai FTZ developed, Mao summarized and always followed the principle of “unity, pragmatism, keenness, linkage and compliance”. “Unity”, the most important part and running through it all, found expression in: Shanghai Branch established business linkage mechanism to attract other domestic branches to integrate business resources into ledger accounting system; cooperated with IB Capital Operation Center and combined with FTZ policies to make preparations for cooperation between bank and fund company and between bank and futures company; established close link between each parts within the Branch, conducted business collaboration in an orderly way, ensured the quality of risk control, accelerated launch process and achieved a win-win situation with clients.
“The closer our cooperation is, the faster our innovative products will be produced.” In her eyes, innovation can never be made alone but is a joint effort. A business from start to finish often involved multiple departments of the bank. Only by active cooperation and division of labor can we achieve maximum efficiency. In Department of Trade and Finance led by Mao, details about risk control, settlement, product market, capital and notes will be tailored to make flexible combination so as to meet individual requirements.
Mao was seen as a tough woman by some of her colleagues and “timely rain” of business support by grass-roots client managers. For the sake of advancing business development through daily communication, Mao established WeChat groups, and updates new product information in the group every day. “Regardless of size of enterprise, we always make an individual design, and created a WeChat service group for enterprise, so their problems can be solved at any time.” Mao shook her mobile phone where there were hundreds of WeChat groups.
She had a simple understanding of her work, and often compared market to farmland, and her team members were like farmers farming on the farmland. “Unlike the hunter who can sustain his life for several days by a successful hunt, only by persistent farming can we have a good harvest.”
Definitely it is due to “persistence” of Mao Haiyan and her colleagues that IB Shanghai FTZ business can maintain rapid growth. At present, IB has gone into partnership with 1878 Chinese and foreign-capital enterprises in Shanghai FTZ, including state-owned enterprises, well-known multinational foreign-capital enterprises, large financial leasing companies, bulk commodity companies, investment management companies, securities companies, etc. As of the end of September 2016, IB has issued domestic and overseas financing under FT within FTZ totaling RMB 14 billion, and financing balance has reached RMB 11.2 billion.