OREANDA-NEWS. September 20, 2011. ICBC has continued to explore the custody market and achieved sustainable growth by product innovations, business system upgrade and service extension in the first half of 2011. By end of June, the Bank registered RMB 3 trillion of assets under custody, ranking first among Chinese banks for 13th consecutive year. ICBC also retained the top spot in providing asset custody services to securities investment fund, insurance asset, corporate annuity fund, cross-border asset and wealth management services to fund houses as well as other main custody services, well positioning itself as the No. 1 custodian bank in China, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

According to an official of ICBC, despite large fluctuations in the domestic capital market, the Bank's custody business has seen steady, rapid and healthy growth these years. This was mainly attributed to its efforts in expanding the custody market by stepping up product innovation and developing a full spectrum of products that covers banking, securities, insurance and industrial sectors, targeting institutional investors in China and abroad to create new business drivers. In the first half of the year, ICBC continued to promote rapid growth in its traditional business lines, while taking active measures to boost the "Anxin account" (an asset custody business), custody services for asset management plan of securities brokers, equity investment fund and other new custody services in an effort to achieve steady growth in business size and boost revenue.

The official said, ICBC has maintained a satisfactory record in offering quality custody services for customers and gained their trust with stable business operations. The bank's efforts and performance has made ICBC Number One in custody services. ICBC is the first commercial bank in China to independently develop custodian system, moreover, the powerful system that supports multiple accounting principles and operations across markets under multiple valuation methods and financial statements for its global custody business has provided full IT solutions to ensure quality custody services.

ICBC also continues working to fine-tune its custody business system and lay solid foundation for attracting more customers and expanding its service capacity. The Bank recently upgraded its custody business system once again. The system is based on its business processes with global rules embedded. ICBC is the first Chinese bank that has put in place a ledger system for the custody of securities. Also upgraded was the investment monitoring system and performance analysis system on investment based on evaluation criteria, in a bid to expand and innovate its custody services and explore value-added services including performance evaluation and risk management.

While it has seen rapid and healthy business growth, ICBC is building a sound and extensive network moving from the Head Office to its national branches and from local to global coverage. Currently, 37 Tier-I and direct branches have been granted permission to offer the custody services, forming a wide custody service network in China. With a global perspective, ICBC is striving to set up a global custody service network including ICBC Asia, ICBC London, the Seoul Branch and other overseas branches that offer the custody services. It has also maintained close cooperation and communication with world leading custodian banks, promoting stable growth in its global custody business centered around QFII and QDII. By end of June, ICBC has ranked first among Chinese banks in terms of the number of QFII custody customers and asset scale under custody, further outperforming its peers in the QDII custody area.