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Custody Services for Insurance Assets
 

I. Product Overview
In February 2005, ICBC was the first of its kind in the banking sector to provide custody service for insurance assets. Over the past 12 years, ICBC has developed into a leading custodian bank for insurance assets in the country. It provides custody services for the following products and areas, including: investment securities, bonds, funds and financial derivatives of insurance companies and insurance asset management companies; innovative investment assets such as investment in wealth management products of commercial banks with insurance finds, credit asset-backed securities of banking financial institutions, collective capital trust schemes of trust companies, special asset management plans of securities companies, infrastructure debt investment plans and real estate investment plans; asset management products, infrastructure investment plans, real estate investment plans and project asset-backed plans of insurance asset companies as well as other investment assets approved by CIRC; market investments linked to various insurance institutions and exchanges, interbank investments, open-end fund investments, equity investments and debt investments.
As at the end of 2016, ICBC established custody partnership with 114 insurance institutions including insurance companies and insurance asset management companies, taking a leading position in terms of size of assets under custody in the banking sector.

II. Target Customers
Insurance companies
Insurance asset management companies
Insurance brokers etc.

III. Scope of Services
i. Basic services
1. Asset custody: provide safe asset custody service, and ensure that the insurance assets under custody are independent of proprietary assets and other types of assets under custody;
2. Open an account. open special bank deposit account and various asset accounts for customers, including Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchange securities account, interbank bond account, open-end fund account and investment bank deposit account, and handover of related assets;
3. Clearing and settlement: provide clearing and settlement services for insurance assets involved in various OTC/exchange-traded investment activities according to the third-party data from CSDC, CCDC and fund companies or investment instructions of insurance companies or insurance asset management companies;
4. Transaction supervision: supervise the investment and operation of insurance companies and insurance asset management companies, and ensure that entrusted assets are invested according to regulatory requirements and agreed entrust requirements;
5. Accounting: apply complete and standardised accounting to insurance assets under custody according to relevant laws and regulations as well as the accounting methods agreed with clients;
6. Asset valuation: valuate the insurance assets under custody on a regular basis according to relevant laws, regulations and requirements of clients, to reflect the fair value of assets;
7. Preparation of reports: provide various reports on custody service for insurance assets, for clients and regulators to understand the investment and operations of insurance assets under custody;
8. Custody reports: prepare custody reports on a regular basis according to related agreement, to reflect the basic information about investment and operations of assets under custody, and send the reports to customers of insurance assets;
9. Record keeping: keep intact custody records, account books, reports and other related materials in connection with insurance assets for 15 years above.
ii. Value-added services
Customize various performance evaluation reports, investment consulting service, accounting outsourcing service, report service, online custody service platform for customers and market information etc.

IV. Advantages
i. ICBC, a leading insurance product agency and the largest and the most active institution providing money market business transaction service in China, plays a significant role in the areas of interbank placement, bond repurchase, other local currency financing business and pricing of money market interest rate.
ii. Comprehensive and good-quality cash management service. ICBC’s Internet banking system can offer multiple functions including integrated payment and collection, regular automatic fund collection and allocation, irregular fund collection and allocation through corporate ERP system, account balance reservation and electronic reconciliation information service, to meet the cash management needs of corporate customers such as fund inflow, internal fund flow and fund outflow in an all-round manner.
iii. By adhering to the service philosophy of optimising basic service, innovating value-added service and providing comprehensive financial service, ICBC keeps optimising and upgrading the quality of custody service for insurance assets:
(1) Multiple services can be provided to customers, including opening of various types of securities accounts, green channel for real-time clearing, multilevel securities accounts, accounting and asset valuation subject to multiple currencies and standards, and automatic transaction supervision, so as to improve the quality of day-to-day basic services;
(2) Customers can, according to their needs, select value-added services such as performance evaluation reports, customised reports and online custody service platform for customers. For example, investment consulting service can be selected to improve the efficiency in the use of custody account funds, or investment and accounting outsourcing service can be selected to cut corporate costs.

V. Business Guide
i. Business contact: insurance companies which have demands for custody of insurance assets can contact the Asset Custody Department of the Head Office or local branches of ICBC;
ii. Signing of agreement: an appropriate custody plan will be designed and a custody agreement will be signed based on mutual communication and customer’s demands.
iii. Opening of account: fund custody account, securities account, interbank bond account and open-ended fund account for insurance asset custody will be opened as required by regulators.
iv. Custody operations: services including insurance asset custody, accounting, asset valuation, clearing and delivery will be provided according to custody agreement, and investment and operation of assets under custody will be supervised, with reports submitting to insurance companies on a regular basis.

VI. Contact Information
If you would like to apply for any service, please contact the Entrusted Asset Division II of Asset Custody Department of ICBC:
Liaison: Zhang Kerong, Jia Ruicheng
Tel.: (8610)66105763/5739
Fax: (8610)66105761
E-MAIL: kerong.zhang@icbc.com.cn

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