The final curtain fell on the Shanghai World Expo amid the applause from home and overseas. The impeccable services of ICBC for World Expo have also successfully gone through the test and concluded with a chorus of praise from all.

Earlier, ICBC Shanghai Zhoujiadu Sub-branch received a thank-you letter from World Expo's Guangxi Pavilion. "Since the start of the Word Expo, our work requires us often to come to your sub-branch for our banking needs. Your staffs give us the best services every time when we are at your counter", said in the letter. "We are satisfied with your warm reception, orderly procedures and patience in going through the tedious steps. We learnt a lot from your side and get more understanding in serving for the World Expo." This warm letter was a confirmation of the ICBC financial services for World Expo, but also a true reflection of the heartfelt services to World Expo during these 184 days.

The good remark from customers was a telling story of all the efforts from ICBC Head Office to the branches on service enhancement, outlet re-deployment and channel set-up in order to best serve the World Expo. 

An executive with ICBC said, ICBC has aimed at providing best-quality services since the opening of the World Expo. In order to improve the quality of outlet services, ICBC implemented flextime. Banking hours of the outlets around the World Expo site were extended to ensure provision of financial services to customers anytime. Besides, ICBC monitored in real-time the customer flow in the outlets around main areas of World Expo. Flexible working practices, more staff, more bank windows and green were some of the measures taken to increase the service capability of the outlets to serve the customers during peak hours. During the World Expo, no waiting queues, no long-hours of waiting at the 500 ICBC outlets in Shanghai. 

While efforts were spent on the customer services at the outlets, ICBC also leveraged its IT strength to streamline its electronic banking channel. During the World Expo, ICBC had deployed more than 2000 ATMs in Shanghai areas. All ATMs support cash advances by foreign cards. Under the close monitoring and maintenance of ICBC by dedicated staff, ATMs were monitored in real-time and cash were supplemented more often to ensure 24- hour non-stop running of the ATMs. The opening rate and availability rate of ATMs were both above 98%, a first-class standard in the industry. In Telephone Banking, ICBC answered more than 98% calls during the 184-day World Expo through improved business process and proper staff placement. Customers from home and abroad warmly received the multilingual services (Chinese, English, German, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese) offered in ICBC Telephone Banking.

In order to better serve all the visitors coming to the World Expo, ICBC renovated and re-deployed the outlets around the main areas of World Expo site before the opening of the exposition. Many customers were impressed by the new services and first-class service environment. Worthy of note was that, in places where lots of people moving around like MTR stations, the new MTR banks inside the stations were welcomed by the World Expo tourists. This year, ICBC has set up sub-branches in MTR stations of People's Square, Zhenping Road, Jing'ansi, Xujiahui, stations located at the central interchange area of MTR lines. Besides the conventional services such as automatic cash deposit/drawing machines, these sub-branches were also equipped with wealth management service counters. Experienced customer managers were on duty to help customers in opening personal account, applying for credit card, signing up electronic banking services or developing wealth management plan. The MTR banks of ICBC have enhanced the outlet services drastically and were the new spotlights at the MTR interchange. 

While offering all the regular financial services, ICBC remained committed to "Customer First" yet flexible in sudden events. ICBC gave first priority to the urgent and special cases and addressed every issue of the customers in many possible ways. In June this year, many railway lines in the Southern provinces were interrupted by the flood. Scores of passengers were forced to stay at the Shanghai South Station to return the tickets. ICBC Shanghai Zhabei Sub-branch started the special procedures on special occasion. Staffs were immediately called for to prepare enough cash for the stranded passengers to get refund for their train tickets. Shanghai Xuhui Huaihai Middle-Rd Second Sub-branch opened the green channel of ICBC financial services for World Expo for Jamaica musician Mr. Marshall who was seriously ill. The sub-branch staff exchanged the RMB donations from the society to US dollars for him back to home country for medical treatment, with all the love from Chinese people. Moreover, ICBC extended all the services to customers in every way in a bid to increase the quality of financial services for the World Expo. An example was the staff in Shanghai Jing'an Kangding Road First Sub-branch. They worked overtime to assist the police to recover the lost money (RMB 17500) to a post-90s student. Another example was that a staff in Hongkou Siping Road Sub-branch, he was smart enough to spot the SMS fraud and timely stopped the customer sending any remittance to avoid monetary loss.

The ICBC executive said that Shanghai World Expo was a stage for all countries to exchange experience on technology and culture. The Expo was also a touchstone on the delivery of financial services by the banks. Faced with the more diversified customer sources, explosive growth of business volume and increasing complex conditions, ICBC staffs adhered to the principle of "Excellence in all that we do". They offered top-notch and highly efficient financial services to the World Expo visitors from China and overseas and displayed the glamour of the Chinese banks. The staffs also improved their own management skills, operation efficiency, service capability at the same time. World Expo has been closed, yet ICBC's commitment to deliver best-quality financial services remains unchanged.