Earlier, China Business Journal in collaboration with the Institute of Finance and Banking of Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS) announced the winners of "2010 (Second) Excellent Competitiveness Financial Institutions Awards". ICBC was named the "Excellent Competitiveness Investment Bank".

ICBC earned the accolade from the judging panel and experts for being an investment bank established earliest, of largest scale, offering most comprehensive services and with the most outstanding brand in the country. Since 2002, ICBC's revenue from investment banking rose from 0 to RMB 12.5 billion in 2009, bringing the business forward by leaps and bounds for eight years in a row with an annual average compound growth rate of over 80%. ICBC owns the largest market share, keeps defending its dominant position among the domestic peers as the largest investment bank in terms of scale. ICBC received numerous acclaims on many branded project in key investment banking areas encompassing restructuring/acquisition, equity finance, structured finance, wealth management, corporate bonds, asset securitization. Today, ICBC is an investment bank in China offering the most comprehensive services and garnering the highest brand recognition.

The award selection process lasted for five months. The result was tabulated by China Business Journal Research (CBJR), based on the open data of China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Insurance Regulatory Commission and the application material submitted by the participating financial institutions. From these, the CBJR in collaboration with the Institute of Finance and Banking CASS determined the finalists and chose the winners.