OREANDA-NEWS. April 06, 2011. Last year, ICBC maintained good momentum on the bill business given the difficult operating environment. ICBC Bill Department gathered pace on the adjustment to portfolio structure and product innovation by dint of its dedicated and professional services. In 2010, the Department has registered a transaction turnover of more than RMB 870 billion and RMB 1.037 billion in profit. Profit contribution per person was over RMB 4 million. ICBC Bill Department stands at the very front of the China's bill market by chalking up a good record of zero percentage in accepting fraudulent bills, bad asset rate, fund loss rate and economic crime rate, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

Being the first organization in the country dedicated to bill business, ICBC Bill Department has achieved high-quality growth in bill assets and stable business performance for a decade since its inception in 2000. At present, ICBC has built an integrated business network comprising the headquarters of Bill Department as the "head", eight divisions across the country as the "backbone" and bill centers in the branches as the subsidiaries. Through fast growth, the Department has established itself as the most formidable player in China's financial market leveraging its settlement network, financial strength, customer base and management experience.

Since 2010, ICBC Bill Department has adjusted the business strategy in line with the changes in external market conditions, focusing on the optimizations of business portfolio, R&D and innovation of new products. The first step was to concentrate on resources consolidation, total quantity control, credit limit matching and cross-regional operation to enhance circulation of bills inside ICBC. Various business portfolios were adopted to achieve fast turnover of bills and improve the profitability of bill business in all branches. Meanwhile, The Department looked for new profit growth point by moving aggressively on bill discounting, electronic bill, and the buying back of bill for sale. In 2010, ICBC Bill Department has discounted bills to a total of RMB 4.809 billion, a year-on-year growth of nearly 50%. ICBC is a leading player in electronic bill business, starting from nothing to a transaction turnover totaling RMB 24.895 billion. In terms of the product innovation, ICBC Bill Department achieved breakthrough in emerging businesses such as wealth management on bill, "Bill Winner" integrated product, acceptance of low-risk bills. Income portfolio was more diversified by generating revenue from intermediary business of RMB 7.23 million more than the previous year, to RMB 7.75 million.

Worthy of note was that, ICBC Bill Department also made new progress in risk management in 2010. The Department spent great efforts in the following: business management rules, sampling criteria of risk testing material, classification on the quality of bill assets into 9 levels, prediction and management of asset quality, use of online process,review of ISO document and ISO implementation, internal/external control system. The above measures ensure the effective risk control on bill assets, rules and policies related to bill business are in place for the supervision, management and guidance.

The next move of ICBC is to continue the effort on bill business leveraging its advantages on system and structure, said an executive with ICBC, the bank strives to become the market maker in bill market. To loom large the bill business, ICBC has a couple of initiatives planned to set up a multidivisional structure, build the brand of "ICBC Bills" in China's bill market and establish itself as an integrated service provider.