8:00 AM, July 27 – The first customer stepping into the business hall of the ICBC Sichuan Dazhou Quxian Heping Street Sub-Branch would find the brilliant smiling faces of the ICBC staffs who were ready for the day's work. In late-July, Quxian was battered by the strongest flood ever since in the history. Some ICBC outlets in Quxian were no exception. Heping Street Sub-branch was even flooded for 40 hours. ICBC staffs worked day and night to help themselves getting out of the mishap. All affected outlets under ICBC Quxian Sub-branch, including Heping Street Sub-branch, were the first among the local peers to re-open the business to public and serve the people in the disastrous areas without delay.

To ICBC, this was anther victory. ICBC spared no effort to "ensure the safety, continue the services, serve the customers" under the onslaught of flood water. Every mean and way was taken to ensure financial services for the flood relief and after-flood reconstruction while maintaining "zero loss" of customer money. In this aspect, ICBC was rightly lauded by the people and government in the flood-hit area.

"Ensure the safety, Continue the services, Serve the customers"

Flood and disaster were triggered by heavy rains in China since the floods started this year. ICBC started the emergency plan in the first instance to face the challenge. First action was to stock enough supplies. The other action was to assign dedicated staff to keep a close eye on the flood 24 hours and check out the critical areas. When the flood came, ICBC staffs "sacrifice for all", stayed and worked at the outlets to serve the relief and re-construction work.

To ensure financial services for the people and enterprises in the affected areas, IT assurance, flexible cash delivery, dedicated staff and supply of material were some of the measures taken by the ICBC branches and sub-branches there to "ensure the safety, continue the services, serve the customers" incessantly. As of today, most of the affected outlets were re-opened to business in the shortest span.

In Jiangxi, on June 20 many county sub-branches under ICBC Jiangxi Yingtan Branch were flooded to various extent, to 1,6 meters in some outlets. To make sure the customer money were safe, ICBC staffs raced against the flood water to steal the time to move out the cash, equipments and important vouchers from the flood-hit locations. When the flood receded, staffs were assigned to clear up the mess and install back the equipments and devices in the first instance. Water, electricity, communication lines were fixed so that financial services can be continued as soon as possible. At 12 noon one day after the flood, the seriously affected Yingtan Yujiang sub-branch was the first among the peers in Yingtan to re-open the business. And on that day, Yujiang sub-branch completed 366 transactions (cash, transfer) involving a total of RMB 10.7 million for the local residents and government to meet their fund demands for home rebuilding and the relief work.

Financial Service Assurance

The more the setback, the more the bank is tested on the standard of financial services. ICBC drew up an emergency plan in a bid to support the financial services for the flood relief. Details steps included cash delivery, management of cash-in-stock, funds transfer, opening of temporary account and disbursement of emergency cash. Besides, ICBC kept close contact with the rescue army and started the emergency services for them so that they can receive and disburse emergency cash whenever required. ICBC also helped in handling relief funds and donations. ICBC received donations from the society on behalf of charity organizations like China Charity Federation and Red Cross Society of China, no banking charges on the donations. "Green channel" is set up at the appropriate outlets for the smooth disbursement of relief funds.

ICBC also provided emergency financial services to the transportation sector which was heavily hit by the flood. On June 19, many railway lines in the Southern provinces were interrupted by the flood. Scores of passengers were forced to stay at the Shanghai South Station. Cash was in seriously short supply among the 20+ ticket-refund windows as too many passengers wanted to refund the ticket. At 21:00 PM after receiving the emergency call from Railway Bureaus, ICBC started the special procedures on special occasion. Staffs were immediately called for to draw 6 million yuan of cash during non-banking hours. Considering the need of small changes for ticket-refund, ICBC prepared a large number of paper currency/coins denominated in small amount. 6 million yuan of cash was rushing to Shanghai South Station in just an hour to address the ticket-refund by the passengers.

In helping affected companies recover production as soon as possible, ICBC increased the support on extending credit to them and address their actual issue. In this regard, ICBC Hubei Branch set the example. The Branch collected information on the affected enterprises in the first instance, and the amount they required to recover production. The Branch drew up special proposal, opened "Green channel", gave first priority to affected enterprises and simplified the procedures in review and release of loans to them.