By closely centering on the financial needs of consumers and businesses, ICBC has actively stepped up innovation of personal credit business, and provided solid financial support to consumption upgrading, business start-up and innovation. By the end of June 2015, the number of the Bank’s personal loan customers exceeded 10 million (excluding those that overdraw their credit cards or make payments by installment) to 10.05 million, representing an increase of around 410,000 over the beginning of the year. Moreover, its personal loan business also grew in size, with the balance of loans ranking atop among domestic banks.

According to a bank official, ICBC, as one of the earliest banks engaged in personal credit in China, has formed its own personal loan products system comprising personal housing loans, consumer loans and business loans after over two decades of innovation and development. The system covers housing, commercial property, automobiles, household consumption, culture-related consumption, loans for studying abroad, comprehensive consumer loans, personal credit loans, personal business loans, petty secured loans for the laid-off and the unemployed, and loans to startups, offering funding support to a large number of consumers and individual businesses.

In terms of personal housing credit service, the Bank has strictly followed the housing credit policies of the government, continuously boosted its housing financial service levels, and actively supported consumer demand for housing for personal use and for improvement of living conditions. Since 2014, by exerting its advantages in internet finance, the Bank has also launched real property sales projects via its “ICBC E-shopping” e-commerce platform. By the end of this June, it put up for sale more than 300 property projects in over 60 cities nationwide, and sold over 1,800 houses in total, with sales volume of above RMB5.1 billion.

In terms of meeting consumer credit demands, the Bank has consistently strengthened innovation in credit products, optimized credit service models, and worked to meet multi-tiered and diversified needs of various consumer groups, by focusing on the consumption projects implemented by the government in six sectors, namely information, green economy, housing, tourism, education/culture/sports, and pension/health/household management. Furthermore, by relying on the e-ICBC internet finance system, the Bank has also creatively launched internet-based personal loan services such as Easy Loan, Online Revolving Loan, Card Loan Link and personal self-service mortgage loans in recent years, which greatly facilitate customers’ access to loans via the Internet. Among which, “Easy Loan”, a convenient loan product launched based on direct online/offline consumption, now posts a balance of over RMB190 billion, directly facilitating the growth in household consumption. In the first half of the year, the Bank took the lead to establish the first personal consumer credit financial center in the domestic banking industry, which is committed to developing unsecured and un-guaranteed online personal consumer credit business, building a brand-new “consumer + finance + Internet” service system, and further boosting the willingness and capacity of the public to spend.

In addition to supporting consumer credit, ICBC, by exerting its advantages in comprehensive financial services, has also vigorously developed the personal business loan business, widened financing channels and customized personal business loan products for different types of small and micro enterprises. For example, by targeting the features of capital turnover demands of merchants in the commodity trading market, the Bank has creatively offered the “ICBC Business Friendship Financing” service, by which merchants can access loans in a revolving manner within their credit lines by filing one application. This has not only allowed the merchants to arrange capital turnovers flexibly and conveniently, but also lowered their funding costs.