ICBC to drop comprehensive wealth management business

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest bank in China by assets, announced on Monday evening that it will not accept new applications for personal comprehensive wealth management from June 1.

The comprehensive wealth management business is also called deposit-loan interflow service. When a ICBC client has both loans and deposits business in the same account, he can sign a deposit-loan interflow agreement and manage money with regularly saved deposit funds. The financial income will be used to deduct his loan interest, according to a Beijing Youth Daily report.

For clients who have signed an agreement to do comprehensive wealth management, no extension will be offered, ICBC said in a statement. All agreements will automatically expire after a one-year grace period, it was added.

The decision comes naturally, as the product has been witnessing shrinking business, the bank said, adding that clients can apply for other deposit products for higher expected returns.

According to a report by Beijing Youth Daily, an insider with an ICBC outlet in Beijing also confirmed that they had not handled such business for a long time. "The halt had no significant meaning: it was just that a product came to the end of its life cycle."