On March 27, China's Industrial Bank (CIB) released its 2024 Annual Report. Chairman Lyu Jiajin delivered an address reflecting on the year's milestones, outlining strategic priorities for the next phase, and inspiring confidence in the path ahead. At this pivotal juncture of the 14th Five-Year Plan, CIB remains steadfast in its pursuit of value banking. By enhancing operational resilience to counter external uncertainties and driving reform-driven innovation, the bank is charting its course on the path of finance with Chinese characteristics.
Chairman Lyu Jiajin's Address in the 2024 Annual Report
2024 marks the 36th anniversary of China's Industrial Bank Through three decades of market cycles, we have steadily fortified our resilience to navigate economic fluctuations.
—Aligning with national priorities, we have translated strategic mandates into actionable initiatives, enhancing counter-cyclical adjustments. After surpassing the RMB 10 trillion milestone in total assets, we have sustained an upward trajectory, achieving double-digit growth across our tech finance, green finance, inclusive finance, and pension finance loan balance. With digital finance transitioning from the development phase to the harvest phase, we have seized first-mover advantages in building the "technology-industry-finance" virtuous cycle.
—Undeterred by challenges, we upheld the principle of "progress through stability" to drive high-quality development. We have effectively managed net interest margin while achieving dual growth in both operating income and net profit. Our asset quality and risk absorption capacity have remained industry-leading, delivering resilient performance amid a challenging environment characterized by low interest rates, compressed spreads, and elevated risks.
——Upholding value creation through responsibility, we have striven to share development achievements with all societal stakeholders. We have achieved an upgrade in our MSCI ESG rating from AA to AAA, delivered significant share price appreciation throughout the year, and will break the 30% dividend payout ratio threshold for the first time. This demonstrates our success in attaining a higher-level equilibrium that harmonizes economic, social, and environmental value creation.
——Pursuing aspirations with unwavering determination, we are continuously elevating our market position and brand reputation. Our bank has advanced to 16th place in the global banking rankings (up from 17th), reinforced our status as a systemically important bank. Our headquarters also received the "National May 1st Labor Certificate", demonstrating vigorous momentum throughout strategic transformation.
As a nationally systemically important bank with total assets exceeding RMB 10 trillion, we daily witness the differentiation and perseverance across industries during economic transformation, and increasingly sense the growing vitality and confidence among households forging ahead against headwinds. We salute to every market entity striving with perseverance!
As we look ahead to 2025, the global landscape remains as unpredictable as a chess game, fraught with uncertainties. The challenges of low interest rates, compressed spreads, and heightened risks persist as unresolved systemic issues confronting the banking industry. When everyone embraces the power of market forces and adapts to evolving dynamics, our confidence in success will grow inexorably stronger with each passing day. Responding to external uncertainties with operational certainty constitutes our definitive answer to epochal shifts and industry-wide challenges.
——We must accelerate strategic implementation with concrete actions. While every bank possesses grand strategic visions, execution quality determines strategic success. We will maintain strategic resolve and enhance execution by translating the Five Major Topics into actionable project blueprints. By embedding financial services into diverse consumption scenarios, implementing granular pricing for each asset and liability operation, and granting differentiated policies to business units, we will establish an effective mechanism to promote coordinated, synergistic, and integrated development across corporate banking, retail banking, and interbank operations, balancing macro vision with micro precision.
——We must accelerate client focus on existing portfolios. Banking client management has transitioned from land-grabbing expansion to intensive value extraction, and mining existing client value has become imperative to resolve industry involution. We will return to financial services' essence by optimizing systematic client management frameworks. Enhancing digital operational capabilities and customer experience, we will build a brand image that embodies "mainstream positioning, innovative solutions, seamless convenience, and exclusive privileges." Through continuous value extraction from our 110 million retail clients, 1.5 million corporate clients, and 4,000 institutional clients, we will deepen and solidify our developmental foundation.
——We must accelerate global market expansion. Amid rising trade protectionism and intensifying domestic competition, "go global or be out" has become an industry consensus. We must integrate into high-level opening-up initiatives, closely follow our clients' global expansion, actively expand overseas service networks, position international business as an essential financial function for serving premium clients, drive comprehensive and leapfrog development of international operations, and strive to join the top tier of peer banks within three years. Through learning by doing, we will transform the deep sea into our "blue ocean."
— We must accelerate future-oriented technological breakthroughs. From the domestic "Hundred Models Competition" to DeepSeek's explosive emergence, China's artificial intelligence sector is transitioning from following to leading. AI large models characterized by "low cost, high performance, and open-source ecosystems" have entered mainstream adoption, propelling financial digital transformation into the second half of intelligent services. We will continue leading digital transformation through enterprise-level strategies and standardized methodologies, fortifying intelligent infrastructure. By simultaneously advancing our "smart decision-making hub," human-AI collaborative scenarios, and ethical technology frameworks, we will foster an ecosystem where AI is accessible to all and utilized by all, accelerating the evolution from "digital industrial development" to "intelligent industrial development."
— We must accelerate risk exposure reduction. Risk remains the most critical variable affecting high-quality development, while security stays paramount. Crises must not be wasted, and lessons must not be squandered. We will reassess risk management philosophies and mechanisms through past experiences, reinforce bottom-line and extreme-scenario thinking, implement prudent risk appetites, strengthen three lines of defense with clear divisions of labor, defined responsibilities, organic coordination, and effective checks-and-balances, refine our comprehensive, organization-wide, and end-to-end risk management system, and employ digital tools to enhance risk management quality and efficiency, ensuring our risk curve trends downward decisively.
— We must accelerate workforce elevation. As silicon-based lifeforms increasingly acquire human-like cognition, language, and form, humanity must contemplate how to position itself among intelligent beings. We will redesign human capital strategies: implementing more effective professional training to help talent outpace technological evolution, intensifying job rotations to enhance executives" versatility, and delivering cultural education that resonates deeply to achieve employees" holistic development. Through this, we will continue demonstrating that "humans scale the highest peaks" in our journey toward prosperity.
2025 marks the conclusion of China's 14th Five-Year Plan and the formulation of the 15th Five-Year Plan. We remain steadfast in our conviction, committed to long-termism, persistent in tackling challenging yet right endeavors, and determined to accumulate strength for cyclical challenges—striving to pioneer the path of financial development with Chinese characteristics!