Our Advantages

Since the beginning of the year, in the face of severe and complex external environment, the Bank studied and carried out in depth Xi Jinping’s Economic Thought on Finance, and adhered to the general principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability. Taking the opportunity of accepting the central inspections and carrying out the Party discipline learning and education, the Bank stuck to the political and people-oriented nature of financial work, adhered to the guidance of the Party building theory, and accelerated the “five transformations” of intelligent risk control, modern layout, digital driver, diversified structure and ecological foundation. Keeping forging ahead, despite the challenges, the Bank worked proactively and played the key and ballast stone roles in consolidating and building up economic recovery. While keeping major performance indicators stable, it advanced high-quality development solidly.

In the first half of the year, various business segments of the Group worked together to achieve a dynamic balance of assets, capital, and funds. The core indicators of being “Strong, Excellent and Large” maintained steady growth, demonstrating strong operating resilience. The Bank achieved an operating income of RMB401,999 million, and generated a net profit of RMB171,296 million, with the annualised return on average total assets (ROA) and the annualised return on weighted average equity (ROE) of 0.75% and 9.53%, respectively. It planned to distribute an interim cash dividend of RMB51,109 million for the first time, with a dividend payout ratio of 30.0%. The Bank issued the first TLAC non-capital bond in China. Its capital adequacy ratio was 19.16%; its non-performing loans ratio was 1.35%, representing a decrease of 0.01 percentage points over the beginning of the year; its allowance to NPLs was 218.43%, representing an increase of 4.46 percentage points, and the balance of total allowances stood at RMB954,237 million, further enhancing its risk resistance capacity.

Assets maintained stable growth, and the quality and efficiency of serving the real economy continued to rise. The Bank highlighted its major responsibilities and core businesses, proactively implemented various macroeconomic policies, and made good use of the total amount, structure, incremental and existing amounts of investment and financing, to meet the financial needs of the real economy in a more targeted and effective way. RMB-denominated loans of domestic branches recorded an increase of RMB1.74 trillion or 7.1%; RMB-denominated bond investments increased by RMB1.09 trillion, and domestic underwritten bonds as the lead underwriters amounted to RMB769,533 million, all maintaining market leading position. The Bank made solid progress in the “Five Priorities” of technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance and digital finance, and strengthened high-quality financial services for major strategies, key areas, and weak links. Its loans to manufacturing, loans to strategic and emerging industries, green loans and inclusive loans increased by 13.0%, 14.7%, 13.7% and 21.5%, all higher than the average growth rate of total loans. The Bank strengthened services for the areas such as “Major Strategies and Key Fields”, “Renewal and Trade-in” and “Three Major Projects”¹, and actively implemented the coordinated urban real estate financing mechanism, providing strong support for ensuring timely delivery of housing. Thanks to the efforts made to promote consumption and expand domestic demand, the total amount of personal consumption loans, business loans, and card overdrafts increased by RMB304,014 million. The Bank has significantly enhanced payment facilitation and elderly services, and continuously improved the brand value of “By Your Side and As Your Trust”.

Firmly reinforcing the defense line of security and ensuring various risks are controllable as a whole. The Bank adhered to the principle of “early identification, warning, exposure, and resolution” of risks, coordinated development and safety, followed the path of “active prevention, smart control and comprehensive management”, deepened the “Five-pronged Risk Management Approach”², and upheld safe development as the bottom line. The Bank continued to tackle asset quality issues, further applied investment banking thinking to activate existing assets and make good use of incremental assets. Risks arising from key areas such as real estate, local government debts, and small and medium-sized financial institutions have been effectively controlled, contributing to the overall stability of asset quality. The Bank improved the Group’s internal control system and mechanism for risks, reinforced risk officers, and continuously enhanced the bonding force of the “three lines of defense”. It accelerated the construction of enterprise-level intelligent risk control platforms, and strengthened the coordinated management of the Group’s cyber security. The Bank ensured workplace safety with a strong sense of responsibility of being vigilant all the time by controlling the sources and eliminating potential risks. It maintained continuous and stable business operations, effectively protecting the life and property safety of customers and employees.

Reform and transformation were picking up, and the momentum of high-quality development was continuously increasing. The Bank adhered to integrity and innovation, deeply implemented the development plan of the Group, further reinforced strengths while making up for weaknesses, consolidated the foundation and exploited more sources of growth. The Bank deepened the “GBC+” projects, fully implemented the mechanism of “allocating the land on the household basis and assessing it by household”³. The number of corporate, personal and inclusive customers rose by 788 thousand, 8,932 thousand, and 463 thousand, respectively. The Bank launched the first financial infrastructure service program in the banking industry, improving the customer management system for industrial funds, and continuously enriching the financial cooperation ecosystem. The Bank tracked and analyzed customers’ fund flows by tier and category, and promoted cost reduction and structural optimization of liabilities. Its RMB deposit balance stood at RMB32.39 trillion, an increase of RMB557,010 million, achieving a significant improvement in stability. The balance of personal financial assets under management (“AUM”) amounted to RMB21.77 trillion. The Bank actively served the RMB internationalization relying on its global financial service network. In the first half of 2024, cross-border RMB business reached RMB4.75 trillion. The construction of D-ICBC continued to advance. The Bank released version 9.0 of mobile banking, and deepened the construction and empowerment of hundreds of billion-level large model technology, which has been applied in dozens of business scenarios such as financial markets, credit risk control, and internet finance, accelerating the cultivation of new growth drivers and new advantages.

^1. “Major Strategies and Key Fields” refer to implementation of major national strategies and the construction of security capabilities in key areas; “Renewal and Trade-in” refer to equipment renewal and trade-in of old consumer goods; “Three Major Projects” refer to government-subsidized housing, urban village redeveloping and dual-use public infrastructure that can accommodate emergency needs.
^2. “Five-pronged Risk Management Approach” refers to the overall risk management system of Head Office and branches, domestic and overseas institutions, on- and off-balance sheet businesses, online and offline business, commercial banking and investment banking subordinated institutions.
^3. “Allocating the land on the household basis and assessing it by household” refers to improving the broadest customer base maintenance system, further defining the “responsible fields” of customers under management, and promoting the enhancement of service quality and efficiency.