Walking into the ICBC Branch in Korea, situated in the downtown of Korea capital Seoul, is walking into a busy yet happy working environment. Everybody in the Branch devotes to his/her own duties, converses in fluent Korean on any issue, works independently and attentively and treats each other as friends. No national borders here. This is the first impression of ICBC Seoul Branch, a "Strong, forward-facing, Influential" Chinese bank in Korea.

ICBC Seoul Branch was a small and insignificant foreign bank more than a decade ago. But by now, this ICBC subsidiary in Korea sees its asset scale surged 120-fold from USD 17.06 million during its inception in 1997 to USD 2.06 billion at the year-end 2009. Ratio of bad asset stays at a meager 0.05%. ICBC Seoul Branch posts a book profit of USD 36.5 million and leads over all the other Chinese banks in Korea in the main business indexes. ICBC Seoul Branch is now a mainstream commercial bank in Korea. On previous several checking occasions, Korean financial regulatory authority gave the highest remarks to ICBC Seoul Branch among all the foreign banks in Korea.

All these honors not only attest the close trade and economic activities between China and Korea, but more precisely, that ICBC Seoul Branch has been successful in the strategic play of joining the Korean financial market and turning into a local mainstream bank. Under this strategy, ICBC Seoul Branch moves forward by adhering to the stated mission of "adapt to local situation, exemplify uniqueness, steady operation, continual development". The Branch leverages on ICBC's strong financial background to clamor for an increased presence in the Korean financial market. ICBC Branch has successfully demonstrated how a Chinese Bank "Go Global".

Adapt to Local Situation, Increase Presence in Local Market

ICBC Seoul Branch was established in December, 1997 when the Asian financial crisis made its road into Korea. Another branch in Pusan in May 2002 turned ICBC into the only Chinese bank in Korea with branches in two Korean metropolises as of today. Yet, setting up a subsidiary branch is only the first step of the long march. The top challenge that ICBC Seoul Branch has to face is how to gain a foothold in a strange environment featuring intense competition. One more point to the bad side of the coin, at that time most of the Chinese enterprises in Korea primarily engaged in service industry with much smaller scale, creating less demand in applying for bank loan. The weak demand was not enough to support the growth of the Branch. Against this backdrop, ICBC Seoul Branch took the chance in serving the local Korean customers, a roadmap which has the most potential but most challenging as well. In other words, ICBC Seoul Branch focuses on the top conglomerates in Korea and World Top 500 multinationals as the target customers.

It can be said that this was a bold decision to a foreign bank being a new market entrant in winning local customers, especially large customers. In no way could a small and insignificant ICBC Seoul Branch compete with the local Korean banks and large foreign rivals like Citibank or Standard Chartered. Besides, Korean Chaebols are strong in price negotiation. At any one time they work with more than 10 Korean or foreign banks. And many of them prefer to work only with Korean banks or international banks like Citibank or HSBC.

The early difficult years cast a strong memory to ICBC Seoul Branch's General Manager Cui Jiqian. "Our marketing philosophy is to put 100% effort even if the customer demand is as little as 1%. We deliver our best attentive services to win the customers," said Cui Jiqian. The perseverance pays dividend. The 12 years of efforts have translated into a large base of local, premium customers, from zero to one, from one to many. As of December 2009, ICBC Seoul Branch acquired 94 local corporate clients, including such Korean top companies as Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor, POSCO and SK Telecom covering a range of industry sectors as varied as electronics, oil refining, chemical, steel and metallurgy, auto and shipbuilding. ICBC Seoul Branch has established relationships with 13 out of the 14 World Top 500 companies in Korea, and 26 out of the top 30 Korean companies. Cooperation areas have been extended from the initial trade finance to many others like deposit, syndicated loans, bond investment, derivative trading and cash management.

Besides attracting premium corporate clients, ICBC Seoul Branch forges its own  "star" products by concentrating on Korea's export-oriented economy to develop business. As an example, ICBC Seoul Branch places the major products of wholesale banking as trade finance, where forfaiting before acceptance, export dual-factoring and overseas payment on-behalf are some of the trade finance products tailored to the Korean market. The products are warmly received. By the end of 2009, ICBC Seoul Branch scored a trade finance balance of USD 690 million, covering nearly all the service categories of international trade finance. The Branch is now one of the banks with the largest influence in Korean trade finance market. Meanwhile, ICBC Seoul Branch dabbed in the field of aircraft financing and ship financing in 2006 since Korea has a well-developed shipbuilding industry and the dominant position of Korean Air held in the global airline market. The two businesses gained phenomenal growth in the space of only few years. Adding to the list of ICBC Seoul Branch customers is a batch of top Korean companies such as Korean Air, Hanjin Shipping, Hyundai Merchant Marine and SK Shipping. As of December 2009, ICBC's finance balance stood at USD 110 million.

Seize the Opportunity, Serve the Trade between Korea and China

As the economic ties between China and Korea gathering speed in recent years, the bilateral trade and investment activities witness a 27-fold rise to USD 140.9 billion in 2009 from USD 5 billion since 1992 when the two countries established diplomatic relationship. People now travel frequently between China and Korea. ICBC Seoul Branch is well-positioned to capitalize the opportunities brought forward. Henceforth, ICBC Seoul Branch unswerving executes the strategy of "Follow the Customers" in launching financial products and new services. On the one hand the Branch works with the ICBC domestic branches to offer comprehensive financial services to Korean companies which have investments in China. On the other hand it supports the Chinese enterprises to spread their wings in Korea. In this way, ICBC Seoul Branch builds up itself and establishes strong presence in Korea, and also contributes its shares to move forward the bilateral trade between China and Korea.

First and foremost, with a batch of Korean companies (Samsung Group, LG, Hyundai Motor Group, SK, POSCO, Hyundai Heavy Industries, and GS) joining the row, ICBC Seoul Branch then works closely with the domestic branches to provide a range of financial services to Korean companies with investments in China. ICBC continues to loom large with expanding service ranges and influence, covering import/export factoring, L/C services, risk participation, import payment on-behalf, remittance between China and Korea, new products marketing and recommendation, credit investigation, dispute management and guarantee certification, etc. The services are warmly welcomed by the Korean companies in China.

ICBC strides boldly to support the Chinese enterprises to "Go Global" where it plays an important role in assisting Chinese enterprises' acquisitions in Korea. An example would be the M&A project in 2002, where BOE bought Hydis, a panel manufacturer under Korea Hyundai. In the project, ICBC Seoul Branch was in charge of remittance and custody of the stocks.

Nowadays, Koreans and Chinese are travelling frequently between the two countries.  ICBC Seoul Branch is taking this tantalizing opportunity to launch Peony International Debit Cards to Koreans going to China to work, study or travel, and to Chinese staying long-term in Korea who can use the debit cards instead of cash, or for remittance and spending in China. Meanwhile, ICBC Seoul Branch offers a fast and convenient service for Chinese residing in Korea to remit money internationally. The service is branded under ICBC's "Global Transfer" and comes with an alert service to remind users of the remittance policy and changes in exchange rates. Alerts can be through email, SMS or telephone. The service wins favorable replies from the users as more than 20000 remittances were sent via ICBC bank counter in 2009.

A "Local" Bank of Soft Power, Strong Competitive Edge

To a bank like ICBC Seoul Branch who is dedicated to serve local Korean customers, it suggests that whether it can be a "local" bank to compete in Korea is an essential element of success besides other critical factors as service standard, financial strength, product line and brand influence.

Localization strategy starts from localization of the staff. ICBC Seoul Branch takes measures to develop a local workforce and to select and groom local leaders in a variety of management posts. At present, more than 80% of the 65 staff is Koreans, and of the 6 senior deputy general managers, 2 of them are Koreans. Local staffs are in charge of the 4 in 9 of the departments/offices, and those working in the Marketing Department, Internal Control and Compliance Department are all Korean staff.

When ICBC stepped into the Korea market, the difference in language and cultural has been a major hurdle among the staff coming from the two countries. In light of this, ICBC Seoul Branch encouraged staff to set up language groups to help each other. This tradition still survives today. Nowadays Chinese staff in the Branch can comfortably talk in Korean, while Korean staff can speak Chinese at the presentation or write Chinese in official documents. From the very start, ICBC Seoul Branch determines to respect local culture and incorporates the local culture into the corporate theme. To respect the religion beliefs of the Korean staff, company activities or overtime are scheduled carefully not to fall on the Sundays or any religious festival. ICBC Seoul Branch set up the "Staff Association", an organization tantamount to a Labor Union as a platform for the staff activities. ICBC Seoul Branch also hires the professional human resources management company to set up a scientific and reasonable payroll system, incentive and constraint scheme as one localization measure to motivate the Korean staff.

Meanwhile, ICBC Seoul Branch incorporates excellent corporate culture of ICBC into the management of staff to motivate the workforce and increase their loyalty. An example: Every year's "Year-End Meeting" (New Year Evening Gala) is an occasion to congratulate the outstanding staff of the year in an effort to motivate other staff. On celebrating the 10th year anniversary, the Branch presented souvenir medals with personal names engraved to 10 Korean staff who worked in the Branch for 10 years. The honoring of old staff serves as an incentive to the new staff.

Jin Zhiying is a Korean staff working in ICBC Seoul Branch. She said: "The managers of Seoul Branch treat everybody equal. They value opinions and suggestions from the subordinates. We are friends to each other in the Branch and we work as a team with high spirit". In fact, ICBC Seoul Branch has a very stable team of highly-educated, highly-qualified and experienced local staff since its inception. Everybody believes that working in a top bank of China or in the world can bring tremendous opportunity and potential to advance personal career.

ICBC Seoul Branch's long-standing effort in integrating into the local market has been recognized by the Korean Government. In May, 2006, the General Manager of ICBC Seoul Branch Cui Jiqian was named "Honorary Citizen of Seoul" in recognition of his contribution to the stable development of Korean economy and finance. And in March 2008, Korea's President Lee Myung-bak personally conferred the highest honor – "President Award" to Cui Jiqian.

ICBC Seoul Branch boasts a balance sheet to die for by "being the local bank, adapt to local situation, expand aggressively, embrace the latest", and paving the way for sustainable development in the future. In 2010, ICBC Seoul Branch welcomes another new opportunity as trade and economic activities between China and Korea are picking up steam, and when ICBC world-class overseas business processing system FOVA successfully in production in the Branch. ICBC Seoul Branch remains committed to the localization strategy, to serve the trade and investment activities between China and Korea, to support Chinese enterprises to "Go Global", and moves relentlessly to turn itself into an outstanding mainstream bank in Korea.