On May 25, the first "China Financial Brand Summit", jointly organized by Financial Times and China Financialyst Magazine, was held in Beijing to reveal the "List of Excellent Chinese Financial Brands in 2016". By virtue of fruitful achievements and outstanding contributions in social responsibility, Industrial Bank (IB) was rewarded the honor of "Annual Excellent Financial Brand of Social Responsibility". Gao Jianping, the chairman of IB, was granted the reward of "China's Excellent Financial Brand Figure".
A strong country is made by strong brands. Now the State Council has decided to make May 10 each year the "China's Brand Day". As the core of modern economy, finance is an important and indispensable part in the process of brand construction in China. After the Opening Reform, as our financial industry kept soaring up, the construction of financial brands has revealed outstanding results. As a brand has become the core competitiveness of an enterprise, an array of socially responsible and widely welcomed banking brands, represented by IB, have emerged.
As one of the China's first shareholding banks, IB bears the mission of "finding a way for financial reform and making more contributions for the economy" and encourages the spirit of "making aggressive efforts to win". Growing from a struggling bank located in the Southeast of China, to one of the Top 50 Global Banks, Top 100 Global Listed Companies and Top 500 Global Enterprises, IB has achieved a transformation from a regional bank to a national bank, a listed public bank and a modern comprehensive financial service group based on banking. IB has become one of the best shareholding commercial banks in China and an eye-catching blue-chip brand in the capital market of China.
In recent years, facing the economic New Normal of China, IB has adapted itself to changes, sensitively seized the financial trend and adjusted the operation strategy in a forward-looking way. By making progress while maintaining stability, IB has accelerated the transformation and upgrade. All its business sectors have witnessed stable growth and its market position and brand influence are climbing stably. According to the data, by the end of 2016, IB’s total assets have reached RMB 6.09 trillion, ranking first among all shareholding banks in China; the operating revenue has reached RMB 157.060 billion; the net profit was RMB 53.850 billion with a YOY growth of 7.26%; the total ROA and net ROA were respectively 0.95% and 17.28%, remaining excellent in China. According to the list of "Top 500 Global Banking Brands in 2017" released by The Banker in hands with Brand Finance, IB ranks No. 21, up by 15 positions. Its brand value has achieved USD 10.567 billion with a YOY growth of 63.70%.
While maintaining stable and sustainable development, IB has also recognized the importance of social responsibility from a strategic point of view and is committed to becoming a responsible and inspiring brand. By incorporating the idea of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development into the practice of bank operation and management, IB has come up with a creative way of implementing social responsibility that "shows obligations in profits". Relying on innovative business mode, IB will create a harmony among the nature, the environment and the society.
Mentioning "showing obligations in profits", the green finance initiated by IB is the best example. In 2006, IB proposed the strategy of developing the green finance and building a "golden brand". This strategy originates from the decisions of "building a big, powerful, outstanding and influential brand" made by the board of directors of IB chaired by Gao Jianping. After 11 years of market exploration and excavation, IB has achieved many "No. 1" in the industry, held fast to its status as the industrial leader, and formed a green financial product service system boasting complete categories and abundant species. IB has provided a total of RMB 1 trillion of green financing to support the construction of a "Beautiful China". All of its supported projects can save 26,470,000 tons of standard coal, save 74,080,000 tons of CO2 emission and save 304 million tons of water each year.
As an old stager in inclusive finance, IB makes finance warmer. The exclusive interbank platform upholds the business concept of “a common platform to share resources and achieve win-win results through joint construction”, connects nearly 800 small and medium-sized financial institutions and more than 46000 outlets, thus spreading modern financial services to third-tier and fourth-tier cities, rural areas and remote areas and differentiating itself as a benchmark in implementing inclusive finance; IB is the first bank in China to release "Enjoyable Life", a comprehensive financial scheme designed to care and serve the aged and deal with the aging of population. It has become the preferred brand of more than 1.3 million aged clients.
Gao Jianping once said, in order to become a first-class and time-honored bank, IB should pursue its dream and give equal consideration to business profit and social responsibility. As the mainstream commercial bank in China, IB has always considered serving entity economy as its biggest social responsibility. By focusing on the structural reform of supply side and relying on the multi-license operation advantages of the group, IB has provided more financing channels for the entity economy through leasing, trust, industrial fund, PPP fund and asset securization. IB successively provided RMB 80 billion of fund via lease financing for the joint development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei and the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt; participated in the establishment of the Silk Road Gold Fund, the China Railway Industry Fund, the Military-Civilian Integration Development Fund, the Fujian Provincial PPP Guiding Fund; issued China’s first medium-term notes in support of “Belt and Road”, so as to effectively meet the changeable demands of enterprises in financing during the process of economic development. IB also spares no effort in fostering the financial service covering the whole lifespan of micro and small-sized enterprises, supports the "popular entrepreneurship and innovation" initiative by combining equities and bonds. Now it has 418,000 micro and small-sized clients (defined by IB) and RMB 95.009 billion of loan balance for them.
Not forgetting its original purpose, IB is devoted to public undertakings and actively gives back to the society. It makes both regular donation and disaster assistance, and has formed a charity mechanism featuring “education donation”, “disaster fund” and “poverty alleviation fund”. The expenses for external donations exceeded RMB 30 million in 2016. Meanwhile, IB intensifies the force of accurate poverty alleviation with financial support for undeveloped areas in terms of poverty alleviation in products, industries, channels, education and appointed areas. By the end of 2016, the loan balance for accurate poor alleviation of IB has totaled RMB 3.127 billion, up by RMB 1.642 billion compared with the beginning of the year.