Global reach, resources and reputation for ICBC

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd has recently been granted a branch license to operate in the United Kingdom by the British financial services regulator.

With the new license, ICBC will enjoy greater lending and financing capacity in the UK.

Many insiders view the license as further proof the Chinese bank is increasingly recognized by international banking authorities for its comprehensive strength.

Founded in 1984, ICBC has developed into a top global listed bank with an excellent customer base, diversified business structure, strong innovation capabilities and market competitiveness.

The bank provides comprehensive financial products and services to more than 4.7 million corporate customers, some 430 million personal customers using its advanced e-banking network and over 17,000 institutions worldwide.

Not just the largest

Not just the largest bank in China, ICBC is also the biggest among its international peers by key indicators in the banking industry such as deposits, loans, total assets, tier-1 capital, revenues and profits.

In 2013, ICBC was selected as one of the global systemically important banks. In 2014, it retained its position in first place among the top 1,000 world banks as rated by the British financial magazine The Banker.

Among the Global 2,000 listed by US magazine Forbes, ICBC is the largest enterprise in the world.

However, being big is not all the bank wants.

With the vision of building a globally leading bank with the best profitability, performance and prestige, the bank has been moving ahead with transformation and structural adjustment. It tries to achieve a tradeoff between providing a stronger impetus to profit growth in the immediate future and paving the way for long-term development.

Among all the initiatives, its overseas expansion is one of the most successful.

Global service network

There have been further improvements in the bank's overseas service network this year - its branches in Peru and New Zealand officially opened for business, and the bank also signed an agreement to buy a 60 percent stake of Standard Bank Plc.

Yi Huiman, president of ICBC, said that if approved by authorities, ICBC will be the controlling shareholder of Standard Bank Plc, which will then become the Chinese bank's overseas flagship for bulk commodities, currencies and capital markets

ICBC already has a much-improved overseas operation network with 331 overseas institutions in 40 countries and regions as well as agency relations with 1,767 banks globally.

ICBC has extended its service to six continents - Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, Australia and North America. Its service network has indirectly expanded to 18 African countries through its holdings in Standard Bank of South Africa.

By the end of July, 2014, the total assets of its overseas institutions totaled $232.5 billion, an increase of 11.1 percent compared with the beginning of the year.

The non-performing loans ratio of its overseas institutions was 0.48 percent, demonstrating the bank's leading position in asset quality among its international peers.

The bank's cross-border RMB business continued to see rapid and healthy growth, with the business volume increasing 70 percent to 1.7 trillion yuan ($276.9 billion) in the first half of the year.

The Beijing-based bank has expanded its services to core target markets and China's trade partners, and is more capable of serving customers in various countries, which greatly enhanced its service capacity worldwide.