As related, ICBC gathered momentum for its pension fund business in 2010. The Bank has 4,470 new pension fund customers from the beginning of the year to 22,790 at the end of 2010. Pension fund under trustee management increased RMB 4.4 billion to RMB 42.7 billion. The Bank managed 9.12 million pension fund personal accounts, representing a year-on-year rise of 23.5%. Pension fund under custody registered an increase of 28.4% against the same period last year to RMB 148.7 billion. ICBC stays ahead of the peers in terms of the number of personal account under management and the size of funds under custody.

China's pension fund market has been moving very fast in recent years, said an executive with ICBC. Market size continues to expand under comprehensive rules and improved development environment. ICBC is the first among the domestic peers to be qualified as the account manager and the custodian bank for corporate annuity fund. Subsequently, ICBC obtained the qualification of corporate trustee for corporate annuity. Together with the qualification of investment management for corporate annuity fund owned by ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management Co. Ltd., a holding subsidiary of ICBC, ICBC has "full license" for its corporate annuity business.

In 2010, ICBC spent more R&D efforts in pension fund business and put up a new pension fund integrated management system. This industry-leading business management system encompasses external services, risk control and internal management under one root and provides strong technical support to move forward the pension fund business. It boosts the security, adaptability and convenience in the management of pension fund.

Meanwhile, ICBC's expertise in product innovation is a strong force to drive the progress of pension fund business. Besides the routine management and services, ICBC enhanced the functions of Internet Banking annuity services, Telephone Banking annuity services, peony annuity card in a bid to satisfy the individual requirements of corporate annuity customers. The newly launched self-service platform for customers serves to increase the automation of business processing and the level of self-service. In the standardization of products, ICBC joined force with related organizations to launch "Ruyi Pension 1", "Ruyi Pension 2" and "Ruyi Pension 3", a full range of corporate annuity plans that enable individual to convert investment. The plans elicited enthusiastic market response since their launch. Moreover, ICBC launched in collaboration with other professional organizations the "Taiping ICBC Intelligent Credit", "Ping'an ICBC Stay with You", "Taikang ICBC Forever Peace", "Chinalife ICBC Forever Wise", "Happy Retired Life 4", which are standard corporate annuity plans to better meet the diversified needs of the customers.

The ICBC executive said, the Bank's move in later period is to launch new products and services in the area of pension fund based on the market progress and customer requirement. The Bank will spent continuous effort to optimize and upgrade the business system so that more convenient, highly efficient pension fund services can be provided. Meanwhile, ICBC will embark product innovation program to set up a service scheme targeting different type of customers with a complete range of pension fund products.