About China Construction Bank
China Construction Bank (CCB) is a state - owned commercial bank with business focusing on medium - and long - term lending. Headquartered in Beijing, CCB conducts operations across the territory of China as well as in major international financial centres.
China Construction Bank was established on October 1, 1954 against the background of the implementation of the first Five - Year National Economic Plan.
CCB began its operations with a critical role in managing the huge investment funds for 156 key construction projects that were to be implemented nationwide under the Five - Year plan.
During the period from 1954 to 1978, CCB had performed the following functions:
- As a fiscal agent for the government and related enterprises, managing the disbursement of the budgeted investment funds;
- Overseeing the utilization of the funds to protect their intended purpose;
- Extending short - term liquidity loans to the projects;
- Providing basic settlement services to the projects.
Growing along with the People's Republic, China Construction Bank made tremendous contributions to improving the efficiency of government investment, supporting the fiscal balance, and promoting the rapid growth of China's economy.
Beginning in late 1970's and early 1980's, China Construction Bank steadily expanded into new lines of banking business. New products and services offered included credit loans, household savings deposit, foreign exchange services, credit card, housing reform - related financing and home mortgage financing, etc.
Our reform measures and growth strategies bore great fruits: during this decade, CCB realized a 10-fold expansion in the size of its balance sheet with each line of business having recorded a stunning expansion.
This period also witnessed a significant transformation of CCB's role from a sole treasury agent for basic construction funds into a state - owned bank specialized in medium and long - term credit businesses while conducting a broad spectrum of banking activities.
1994 marked a turning point in CCB's history. As a part of the measures by the government in reforming financial and investment systems, CCB handed over its traditional fiscal agent function and its policy - oriented lending to the Ministry of Finance and the newly established State Development Bank (SDB), respectively.
It was from this point that CCB started to reform its operations across the board to prepare for a complete transformation into a modern commercial bank.
Since late 1994, CCB has made significant reforms in its treasury management, credit management, financial control and accounting systems.
The head office and first-level branches have greatly enhanced the management of credit funds in a centralized way; financial and accounting system has been aligned with international standards. Meanwhile, CCB has redefined its strategies in customer service and operating geographies.
All these efforts led CCB to a new era of robust growth and remarkably improved profitability.
A new logo with the present name of China Construction Bank, appeared on the office building of tens of thousands of branches and sub-branches across the country in March 1996, along with the introduction of a new corporate identity system.
The sky blue logo reflects vividly our prudent operating style, our commitment to a relentless striving for perfection. It also delivers a strong message from us: to build a better life in this ancient land of China.
Since 1994, CCB has streamlined its branch network in China by consolidating some sub-branches at the county level and strengthening operations at major cities in response to the adjustment of our credit business focus.
Overseas expansion remains another focus of CCB's reform. Up to now, CCB has established branches in Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Singapore, and four representative offices in other major international financial centers.
The number of correspondent banks worldwide has increased to 600, extending CCB's reach into nearly 80 nations across the five continents. CCB has become a major player in international capital - raising such as debt issuance and arrangement of syndicate loans, which makes CCB an important bridge between China and international capital markets.
CCB had already built up a presence in Hong Kong even before the hand-over of sovereignty of Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong's return to the motherland has given a further boost to CCB's expansion in this market. CCB has now made equity investment in a number of banks and finance companies, and become the largest shareholder of Hong Kong Jian Sing Bank.
CCB always attaches great importance to the application of modern science and technology. As early as in the beginning of 1990's, CCB had completed within less than five years the transformation from a stand-alone technology environment to a sophisticated network that covered bank-wide operations.
This network is composed of Electronic Fund Clearing System, Long (Dragon) Card Transaction Network, Intranet System, Accounting General Ledger Transmission System, e-mail system, and a link with SWIFT system. In addition, a number of regional transactional networks, all of which are connected with the overall network, have been established in 210 large - and medium - sized cities.
Extensive and effective application of modern computer technology allows CCB to have greatly raised the quality of services and become a pioneer in financial innovation. For example, the Electronic Fund Clearing System, which became operational in 1996, has offered our clients swift, safe, and efficient electronic fund transfer service, and made it possible for cross-region fund transfers to be cleared within 24 hours.
Backed by this system, CCB has also helped many corporate clients establish clearing and settlement network for their nationwide sales, and provided transaction settlement support and services for a number of securities firms.
In recent years, CCB has consolidated its traditional competitive advantage in financing infrastructure and basic industries, such as highway, railway, telecommunication, power network, and urban construction.
Large and profitable enterprises remain our key clients, while we have also increased lending business to those medium - and small - sized companies with strong growth prospect.
Now CCB has signed up nearly 500 large - and medium - sized enterprises to provide them with a package of comprehensive financial services, and joined efforts with over 10 super large companies to set up nationwide sales settlement networks.
As a part of our efforts to improve the overall asset quality, we also expanded successfully our financial services into information product and service related industries as well as other fast growing sectors, thus resulting in a higher profitability.
Remarkable achievements have also been made in retail consumer banking business. Following the introduction of Long Card (credit card), CCB has added many new members into the Long Card family, including debit card (savings card), account transfer card, IC card, and various co-branded cards.
Today, Long Card has emerged as a core brand for our numerous banking card products. CCB has obtained 70% market share in home mortgage financing, and has built up an unparalleled clientele in the auto financing market for which CCB has spearheaded. Our innovations in individual account management, payment and settlement, etc. have also enabled our clients to enjoy more efficient and faster fund transfer services.
Non-spread business has reported a solid growth since 1994. As the largest agent for State Development Bank, CCB has handled during the period of four years 79.8% of SDB's credit fund disbursement, totaling RMB 342 billion.
With our advanced settlement systems, we provide a whole range of clearing and settlement services in a timely and safe manner to all types of enterprises. We help our super large business clients to set up after-sale payment and collection network tailored to their specific needs, examples of which include No. 1 Automobile Co. and Chun Lan Co.
We at China Construction Bank have made a strong commitment to fulfill our social duties by actively promoting the progress in education, science and technology, and environmental protection.
CCB has been sponsoring major cultural and sports events in each of the recent years. In 1996, the staff of CCB donated RMB 30 million to set up a "Love Foundation". This foundation has funded the setup of many primary schools in poor and remote areas, helped those college students with financial difficulty to complete their education, and rewarded those who take up the cudgels for a just cause.
More than 1,000 students have so far successfully completed their education with the aid from the Love Foundation. All these efforts simply reflect our goal of promoting the merits and spirits of traditional Chinese culture.
Our mission, To Build a Better Life, is leading us to the 21st century. With this mission, we strive for an even higher level of performance and a brighter future!
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