In 2011, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited ("ICBC") remained committed to serving the economy during an extraordinarily difficult year. The Bank forged ahead business re-orientation and development advance by better aligning the diversified needs of financial services from customers. Through spreading effort on a global scale and integrated operation, ICBC stepped up its reform backed by robust corporate governance practices and risk management. ICBC was well-positioned to remain as the world's largest bank by market value, customer deposit.
ICBC provides a wide range of financial products and services to 4.11 million corporate clients and 282 million individual customers through 16,648 outlets across China, 239 overseas subsidiaries and a global network of more than 1,669 correspondent banks as well as Internet Banking, Telephone Banking and Self-service Banking. ICBC established strong presence by its commercial banking operation and rapid expansion to markets worldwide. ICBC held the top slots in the country in many business areas of commercial banking.
At the end of 2011, total assets reached RMB 15,476.868 billion, representing an increase of RMB 2,018.246 billion, or 15.0% over the end of previous year; Total liabilities reached RMB 14,519.045 billion at the end of 2011, up RMB 1,882.08 billion, or 14.9% from a year earlier. Having a 25.6% increase against previous year in net profit to RMB 208.445 billion in 2011, ICBC defended its position as the world’s most profitable bank. Return on average total assets and return on weighted average equity on par with the international standard, were at 1.44% and 23.44% respectively. Earnings per share rose RMB 0.12 from a year earlier to RMB 0.6. Ratio of non-performing loans fell to 0.94 percent, down 0.14 percentage points against previous year. Bad loan balance and ratio "both declined" in the twelve years in a row. ICBC scaled up its capital strength and sustainable development by securing capital adequacy ratio and core capital adequacy at 13.17% and 10.07% respectively.
ICBC recently bolstered its business portfolio and advanced the transformation of Corporate Banking in line with the changes in the macro environment. One focus was to expand the customer base through different enhanced services targeting at different customers, especially services to key customers and small-and-medium business owners. In order to meet the demand of customers for diversified financial services, ICBC exerted concrete steps to increase synergy between commercial banking and investment banking through service innovation and all-product marketing. Asset management, account services, asset support services, intermediary finance services were financial asset services for large customers. Leveraging its global service network and integrated IT platform covering all ICBC branches at home and abroad, ICBC supported "go global" projects of Chinese enterprises. Global cash management, cross-border RMB services were some of the global services of ICBC to serve worldwide customers. ICBC has been named "Best Corporate Bank in China" by the UK Financial Times. At the end of 2011, the Bank had 4.11 million corporate customers,while 127,000 customers had loan balances with the Bank, or an increase of 25,000 customers over end of previous year. According to data from People's Bank of China, by the end of 2011 ICBC ranked No. 1 among the domestic banks in terms of corporate loans and corporate deposits with market shares of 12.0% and 12.7% respectively.
The bank has locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Shenyang, and Hong Kong.