By March 31st 2009, the deposits of ICBC have exceeded RMB 8.9 trillion (over 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars), over RMB 950 billion more than that at the beginning of the year, and have surpassed its peers in Europe, the US and Japan, becoming the largest in volume for deposit among the globe's banks. With the inter-bank deposits added, ICBC's deposits amount to RMB 9.7825 trillion, or 1.44 trillion U.S. dollars, far beyond the others.

In recent years, many large-scale banks in Europe, the US and Japan have greatly expanded their assets and deposits by the means of takeover and merger. For example, JP Morgan Chase Bank came to hold the largest volume of deposits in the US by acquiring the largest saving bank Washington Mutual bank, creating the record of 1.0093 trillion US dollars. Compared with it, the growth of ICBC's deposits is mainly endogenous. Hence the fact that ICBC makes No. 1 in deposits becomes even more impressive. Moreover, in the context of the financial crisis, the deposit business has again caught the attention of banks around the world; and a trend to return to traditional banking businesses has reemerged. Against such a background, the performance of ICBC in enlarging deposits must have won prevalent attention both at home and abroad.

As pointed out by analysts, the steady growth in deposits in Chinese banks represented by ICBC is a genuine indication of the rapid and healthy development of China's economy and continuing accumulation of its social welfare. As compared to other macroeconomic indicators, the augment of savings deposits reflects more directly the developing status of a country 's economy and finance, and of the increase of citizens and enterprises' incomings and cash flow. That ICBC has got ahead of other banks in volume of deposits can be attributed to its strong customer base, convenient service and high reputation of its brand.

So far ICBC has owned the largest customer group in China, or even in the world. At present, ICBC's corporate clients have reached 3.1 million, and its personal clients 190 million, almost equivalent to the total population of the United Kingdom, Germany and France. Its network of outlets covers every city nationwide, providing much convenience for clients to conduct financial business. For this ICBC has won the name of "bank by my side" from the depositors, and is widely held to be credible and safe. In recent years ICBC has not only endeavored to optimize the allocation of resources among its outlets and improve the quality of its services, but also gone in for developing e-Banking services which can better meet clients' personalized demands. At present, ICBC's ATMs and self-service equipments have totaled 50 thousand, its points of sale 180 thousand, which plus Internet Banking, Telephone Banking and Mobile Banking, constitute an integrated e-Banking services system. The current Business through e-Banking takes up 43% of the total business volume of ICBC. For personal clients, ICBC has paid great efforts in constructing a diversified and personalized service system, launching Private Banking services, building up 110 financial management centers and over 3,000 VIP financial management centers, which enhance the efficiency and quality of its services and satisfy customers' demands for diversification. For corporate clients, ICBC, based on its advantages in capital and conducting settlement, competes for potential customers by providing integrated financial services, developing cash management, asset custody, corporate annuity management, agency and financial management, and thus promotes a steady increase in corporate deposits.  

What is worth mentioning is that ICBC has sped up its transformation towards a business model emphasizing financial trading, and actively promoted financial management, cash management, and different sorts of intermediary businesses and capital businesses. In 2008 ICBC launched 216 financial products, among which the sales of its self-developed products amounted to RMB 2197.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 715%. In the first quarter of this year, the sales of ICBC's financial products hit RMB 1.2 trillion. Currently a total of 120,000 corporate clients choose ICBC's cash management services. From 2003 to 2008, ICBC's intermediary business has maintained an annual compound growth rate of more than 50%.

Deposit service as a basic banking business has long been the most important source of funding for banks. Since the beginning of the new century, banks in Europe and the US have developed different understandings of savings deposits when choosing their profit-making models, and thus two distinct growth models have come into being. Some commercial banks and investment banks have adopted the model of actively taking liabilities, that is, depending on issuing bonds, bills and other financial tools in the financial market to gain returns rather than taking deposits as their main source of funds. On the other hand, Chinese commercial banks represented by ICBC have chosen a moderate growth model characterized by insisting on the fundamental role of deposit-taking. ICBC has not only attended to the control of deposits costs and effective management of deposits, but also endeavored to transform its management model and development pattern -- adjusting its credit structure to expand area for loan-granting, at the same time increasing its revenue by promoting intermediary business.

What distinguishes these two growth models is the banks' structure of assets and liabilities. For instance, the deposits account for about 83% of ICBC's total assets, 88% of its total liabilities; whereas for some European and American banks which actively expand liabilities, their deposits take up less than 50%. The loan-to-deposit ratio of ICBC in 2008 was 55.6%, while the European and American banks' were generally around 100%, some even reaching 150%. Before the financial crisis, due to the smooth operation of financial markets, high market liquidity and low financing costs, these two models performed almost equally well. However, the outbreak of the financial crisis caused a rapid decline in market liquidity; consequently, banks featuring liability taking encountered a surge in capital cost which remained low before, and they even became incapable of financing any more. On such an occasion not only were their liabilities redeemed beforehand; but the assets they hold were also unable to realize at a price they had expected. The market suddenly became "unilateral", giving a fatal blow to these banks. On the other hand, banks emphasizing moderate development and deposit-taking kept a stable performance, as they have reliable capital sources and do not mainly depend on market financing. Take ICBC as an example, in face of the spreading financial crisis and complicated market situation, ICBC achieved an after-tax profit of RMB 111.2 billion in 2008, a year-on-year increase of 35.2%. In fact, ICBC has sustained a high growth rate since 2003, its compound annual growth rate between these six years reaching 37.5%. During this period, its deposits also increased by RMB 4.8 trillion, maintaining a rapid growth. 
 
In the crisis, the significance of bank deposits for liquidity management was redeemed. At present, commercial banks around the globe have started to reemphasize their deposit business. Such investment banking giant as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have transformed into bank groups that can draw deposits from the public, marking the disappearance of a single banking mode of financial investment from the Wall Street. In Europe, the typical full-function bank -- Deutsche Bank has acquired branches of Deutsche Post Bank to enhance its deposit business, which can be regarded as a sort of "regression" or "correction".

Faced with new competition, ICBC says that it will adhere to a moderate and sustainable development model, further strengthen its advantages in deposit business, and advance its intermediary business, so as to speed up its internationalization and integrated development, promote the diversification of its business through innovation and commit itself to establishing the most profitable and respectable bank in the modern banking world.