Citic Bank
In China’s banking sector, no other players would dream of building a physical business network as extensive as that of the state-owned giants. That is why Citic Bank has strived to build its competitive strength around electronic banking since its establishment in Beijing in 1987 – and has succeeded on that front.
Citic, with Wang Penghu as vice general manager, has led its domestic peers in introducing and upgrading electronic banking systems for corporate clients. In July 2016, it became the first Chinese commercial bank to start instituting an integrated electronic architecture for transaction banking.
Thanks to the capabilities of its electronic banking operations, which it has built over the years, the new electronic architecture has enabled Citic to rapidly expand its online banking operations.
By the end of 2016, the total number of transactions the bank had completed online rose 8.5% from a year earlier to reach 520 million. Meanwhile, the total turnover of online transactions it had processed increased 18% to approach Rmb66.1 trillion ($9.7 trillion). Also, at the end of last year, 68.4% of the bank’s transactions were conducted online, an increase of 6.8 percentage points from the end of 2015.
The other milestone last year for the bank was the launch of a fully upgraded online supply-chain finance platform, which is an integral part of its electronic architecture for transaction banking.
The platform provides customized solutions for the bank’s key clients, most of which are large companies in home appliances, auto manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and fast-moving consumer goods industries. Take Haier, a leading Chinese home appliance maker. With the platform, Haier’s distributors across China can place orders and obtain financing from Citic online.
Citic has led domestic commercial banks in providing electronic commercial draft acceptance services. By the end of 2016, it had signed up nearly 30,000 clients, the largest number among Chinese banks, for electronic draft discount and rediscount services.
Now, with the People’s Bank of China, China’s central bank, taking rapid steps to phase out paper drafts in order to curb fraud, Citic is well placed to accelerate the growth of its electronic commercial draft acceptance business.