OREANDA-NEWS. April 12, 2012. China's social security system has been improved and upgraded in the last few years. Corporate annuity is an example of supplementary pension benefit, bringing room for commercial banks to deliver pension fund services. By end-February 2012, ICBC has 10.41 million pension fund personal accounts under management, and over RMB 190 billion of pension funds under custody. ICBC is the first pension fund organization in the country with over 10 million accounts under management, reported the press-centre of ICBC

An ICBC executive said, ICBC is the first bank among the domestic peers to be qualified as the manager and custodian for corporate annuity fund account. Subsequently, ICBC is also qualified as the trustee for corporate annuity. Together with the certification to ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management Company Limited, a subsidiary of ICBC, ICBC has "full licenses" to provide a full range of annuity services to customers.

ICBC has over 30,000 pension fund customers in 20+ industries until end of February, 2012. Among them, there are large corporations or small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) with employees only a few hundred, a few dozens or a handful. To these SMEs, it is difficult to set up an annuity plan due to their small business scale, lack of professional staff and high cost. In light of this, ICBC launches "Ruyi Pension", a corporate annuity plan designed for SMEs, who can enjoy the same annuity management services as for the large corporations, safe, convenient and professional. "Ruyi Pension" comes with simple steps, standard procedures and management modes, and a range of investment products for SMEs to choose. Today, ICBC offers "Ruyi Pension I", "Ruyi Pension II", "Ruyi Pension III" under the "Ruyi Pension" brand. About 5,000 customers have signed up "Ruyi Pension" corporate annuity service. A total of 950,000 workers join the plan.

In 2011, ICBC rolled out "Ruyi Life", a social welfare plan for enterprises/public institutions to provide benefits for their employees covering pension, housing, medical and delayed salary incentive. The employee benefit plan and ICBC wealth management are combined for wide application, simple formalities, higher security, transparency and stable investment return. "Ruyi Life" is well-suited for the enterprises/public institutions to manage, preserve and increase the value of employee benefit funds.