Bank focuses on corporate clients
By Xiao Sun (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-04-13 09:01

The Industrial Bank yesterday launched new wealth management products targeting corporate clients.

The move further strengthens the Fujian-based bank's reputation as a provider of services for the corporate sector, while many other banks have focused on consumers.

The bank is offering a variety of packages that cover online banking, consulting and investment management, as well as financial solutions for exports and imports and tax and fiscal matters, bank sources said.

Clients can tailor the services and packages according to their own demands and the features of their businesses.

Industrial Bank President Li Renjie said the bank aims to build a comprehensive platform for its corporate clients helping them save costs and improve their efficiency.

"Clients have been asking for individualized and value-added services, so we have to reshape our services accordingly," he told a press conference yesterday.

The bank has been renewing its business development model and profit sources as it prepares for a public listing either this year or the next.

It agreed to sell 24.98 per cent of its stake last December to three overseas financial institutions - Hang Seng Bank, the International Finance Company and GIC Special Investment. It is the biggest ratio of foreign acquisition so far in a domestic bank.

"It is a good thing that Chinese banks are expanding their intermediary services and seeking product diversification," said Jing Xuecheng, deputy director of the Financial Research Bureau of the People's Bank of China.

Profits generated from intermediary business can increase a bank's financial soundness and cash flow, helping it reduce its reliance on income from the traditional lending business, he said.

Such financial innovation is also a major driving force of China's financial reform and will enhance the domestic banks' competitiveness, said Jing.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China also launched an asset management centre last Friday to help its corporate clients manage their idle funds. Its first product series is the Bond Trading Master that gives the bank's clients access to the interbank bond market.

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