In recent years, with the growth of personal wealth, ICBC has taken proactive measures to meet demand for diversified allocation of financial assets by accelerating the innovation of personal financial products and business transformation, which helped customers realize value preservation and appreciation in personal assets. Statistics show that by the end of 2014, the Bank posted a balance of personal customers’ financial assets of around RMB 10.5 trillion, becoming the first Chinese commercial bank that held financial assets of personal customers of over RMB 10 trillion. Judging by the growth trend, the year-end financial asset balance of its personal customers increased by around RMB 1 trillion as compared with the beginning of 2014.

According to an ICBC official, the rapid and steady growth of customers’ personal financial assets was primarily attributed to the year-by-year increase in the income of urban and rural residents in China. According to the survey data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the per capita disposable income of the country exceeded RMB20,000 in 2014, up 10.1% over the previous year. Meanwhile, ICBC also witnessed a rapid rise in the number of personal customers, which reached 465 million by the end of 2014, up around 8% over the beginning of the year. An increasing number of wealthy customers have become a powerful engine driving the growth in the Bank’s personal financial assets.

Since the start of the 21st century, under the combined effects of an upgrade of China’s population structure, growth in residents’ wealth, progress in interest rate deregulation, and the development of Internet finance, the wealth of Chinese residents has expanded from bank savings and T-bonds to diversified financial assets including wealth management, fund, insurance, T-bond, third-party custody and precious metals, which is also well reflected in the asset structure changes of the Bank’s personal customers. Statistics show, of the Bank’s RMB10.5-trillion personal financial assets as at the end of 2014, the balance of local and foreign currency deposits was around RMB7.5 trillion; the balance of WM products around RMB1.09 trillion; the total balance of investment products (including fund, insurance, T-bond, third-party custody and precious metals) about RMB1.9 trillion; while the percentage of  deposits dropped from close to 100% in the past to around 70% now.

In response to a new market environment, ICBC has taken the lead in establishing an all-round and three-dimensional business development architecture for retail banking by boosting its comprehensive service capabilities, which formed a “Big Retail” model featuring interconnection with customer demands, sharing of information and resources, aligned development between marketing and services, and integration of businesses and products, and enhanced its market competitiveness in the personal banking business.

Firstly, the Bank has consistently innovated personal financial services in response to the changes in customer demands, and attracted customers with convenient and affordable products. Take the agency payroll service (a rudimentary personal banking product) for example, ICBC has successively launched six types of feature services and the “ICBC Salary Manager” comprehensive agency payroll service system, providing customers with convenient, affordable and exclusive payroll services. By the end of 2014, the number of entities receiving the agency payroll service of ICBC rose by 25% year on year, with a net increase in agency payroll personal customers of nearly 10 million. Total wages distributed under this service increased by over RMB600 billion, or 31% year on year.

Secondly, by targeting customers’ needs for investment and WM as its key service sectors, the Bank has continued to step up innovation efforts in WM business, and formed eight WM product lines (including the non-fixed term products, fixed-income WM products, stock-linked WM products, PE WM products, commodity WM products, forex WM products, alternative investment WM products, and value-added service WM products). The investment service has covered the interbank market, overseas markets and the markets ordinary investors has no direct access to,or no independent judgment on (such as the equity market of non-public companies). In doing so, the Bank has provided conditions for ordinary investors to share the investment returns from these markets. Throughout 2014, the Bank generated WM and investment returns of over RMB 68 billion for its customers, representing a historically high year-on-year increase of nearly 20%.

Moreover, it has also tapped the emerging markets and new customer groups for personal banking. The Bank has expanded customer base by selecting the commodity trading market, emerging consumer market, modern services industry market, and new elements market as its targets, and developing related products. Take the commodity trading market for example, since 2010, ICBC has provided merchants in all types of commodity trading market with settlement, WM and loan services via its new service platform -- ICBC Merchant Friend Club. By the end of last year, over 3,000 ICBC Merchant Friend Clubs were established in more than 5,000 commodity trading markets nationwide, with club memberships exceeding 16 million. In promoting inclusive financial services, by the end of 2014, the Bank issued nearly 12 million “Fu Nong” cards (in support of agriculture, farmers and rural areas) in total, launched a large number of exclusive WM products in county-level areas, launched super POS machines in areas not covered by its outlet services, benefiting personal customers in rural areas with preferential service charges and convenient services.

In the still burgeoning Internet finance sector, the Bank has taken the pole position by accelerating deployments for personal banking under the guidance of its E-ICBC strategy. The "e-Link" product launched by the Bank on the back of Internet finance is the only WM product in the market that can be redeemed and confirmed real-time by customers around the clock. Its liquidity notably outdoes other similar products available in the market and is well sought after among customers. In addition, ICBC has fully integrated its channel resources (including outlets, Internet banking and mobile banking), actively promoted the O2O integrated service model, established a comprehensive service mechanism enabling information sharing, process inter-working and business interconnection among all its channels, and enhanced service efficiency and customer experience. In particular, it has realized O2O online booking/offline handling for over 20 services, such as foreign-currency cash withdrawal, opening of bank reference letters, large-sum cash withdrawal and sale of physical precious metals.