Stars Of China 2024: Innovation Nation

The toolbox is open, and the fine-tuning is underway, as China’s policymakers and financial institutions respond to the thorny economic challenges of the post-pandemic era.

On the policy end, the Politburo in September issued economy-targeted guidance for state agencies. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) conformed by cutting mortgage rates, injecting cash into the banking system, and easing reserve requirements.

Meanwhile, banks across the country are responding to difficult times with an unprecedented wave of innovation. More than ever, Chinese banks are applying creative, expansive, and tech-savvy tools to strengthen innovation throughout their industry, a banking juggernaut with over 430 trillion renminbi ($60.7 trillion) in assets.

Understandably, then, innovation is the common thread among Global Finance’s Stars of China award winners this year. Fifteen banks and three asset management firms shared 28 awards, including three newly added for 2024: Most Innovative Asset Manager, Best Bank for Overseas Branch Services, and Star of Hong Kong.

The honors are especially well deserved this year, given the growing problems in China’s economy, which is expected to see its GDP growth rate for 2024 fall short of the government’s target of around 5%.

While home sales and consumer spending have slowed since pandemic-related restrictions ended in early 2023, banks have been busy brainstorming, designing, and introducing clever business strategies, investment paths, and customer services to support and reinvigorate their sector. In particular, banks are finding new ways to reach specific demographics in areas such as payment services and pension fund investment.

China Construction Bank (CCB) introduced pensioner-friendly voice commands on its mobile app, in step with a government push to improve payment services for the elderly. Innovating to serve the “silver economy” was cited as a future focus for the nation’s banks by Agricultural Bank of China Chairman Gu Shu when he spoke in June at the annual Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai.

Banks are also seeking to support families, homebuyers, and small businesses with innovative services, supported by online credit programs. So many small banks have expanded online loan-processing services since 2023 that state regulators, wary of default risks, set new parameters in April for internet lending.

Big-picture business strategy is also becoming more innovative. Official media in July reported China Merchants Bank Chairman Miao Jianmin’s announcement of a strategic shift for his institution from “retail bank” to “value bank.” Miao described a variety of initiatives designed to strengthen management, accelerate innovation, and improve both wealth management and fintech risk management.

Beijing’s relentless efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions and expand solar power, wind energy, and electric vehicle (EV) production are also spurring banking innovation.

Huaxia Bank’s private banking service now offers clients its CSR Huaxia Bank Green Economy Wealth Index, China’s first asset-allocation index following green and low-carbon activities. China International Capital Corporation (CICC) and China Bohai Bank have tweaked their services to support the national goal of reaching peak emissions by 2030. CICC underwrites green bonds, and Bohai offers low-interest loans to emissions-cutting manufacturers.

In the consumer arena, lending for EV purchases has become a specialty at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). China’s largest bank works directly with EV manufacturers such as Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology, Zeekr, and Li Auto to provide one-stop loan application, facility, interview, and issuing services.

Investment research and education is another trending area for consumer-oriented innovation. Bank of Communications has expanded to offer boutique research and training modules for private banking clients. At some institutions, even the front office offers clients guidance for portfolio management: Industrial Bank chief economist Lu Zhengwei recently recommended that clients practice dividend-focused stock picking.

Supporting innovative manufacturers with financing for research and development is also assuming a more prominent place on bank agendas. CCB’s Guangdong Province branch in March reported lending ¥160 billion to more than 50,000 local, technology-based enterprises. A CCB loan in June to a synthetics manufacturer with 15 patents was the nation’s first in line, with a PBC lending directive aimed at backing creative companies. Meanwhile, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank is tailoring services to work with science and technology enterprises in the city’s Lingang free trade zone.

Digitization is one of the biggest areas of innovation for China’s financial sector. Traditional banks have honed mobile apps by accelerating service provisions and streamlining digital-wallet connectivity. All-virtual banks, including the mainland’s WeBank, MYBank, and aiBank; as well as Hong Kong’s ZA Bank and Airstar Bank, are enormously popular with working-age adults and small businesses. WeBank claims its microbusiness loans have launched more than 300,000 startup enterprises.

Has China’s banking sector reached an innovation peak? No doubt the government’s policy push to address the country’s economic challenges has given birth to invention at banks large and small. However, whether the trend has legs could well depend on the direction the economy takes in coming months.

Meanwhile, it’s certain that the banking sector is responding to its challenges with new tools and an innovative spirit—a development exemplified by this year’s Stars of China.

Global Finance editors select the winners for the Stars of China using information provided in entries and independent research based on both objective and subjective factors. It is not necessary to enter in order to win, but an entry can provide details that may not be publicly available. The editors incorporate insights from executives, academics and other industry experts. Judgements are based on performance from January 1 to December 31, 2023. We apply an algorithm to arrive at a numerical score on a 100-point scale. The algorithm incorporates criteria—including knowledge of local conditions and customers, financial strength and safety, strategic relationships, capital investment and innovation in products and services—weighted for relative importance.

Attending to millions of corporate clients while playing a key role in China’s economic expansion requires laserlike focus on a grand scale. That level of concentration defines ICBC, the world’s largest bank by assets and winner of this year’s Best Corporate Bank award. By focusing on satisfying both customer expectations and the economy’s needs, ICBC contributes to China’s development while building its own competitive position and reputation. As of June, ICBC ranked among the world’s leading commercial banks in terms of corporate clients and corporate loans. With 12 million corporate clients, the bank’s corporate loan balance that month was first among global commercial banks, exceeding ¥16 trillion and up nearly ¥1.4 trillion from January. ICBC topped its Chinese peers last year with more than ¥260 billion in corporate bond underwritings. The bank also reported a steady decrease in its nonperforming and delinquent corporate loan ratios.

The clients just keep coming—from homes, shops and farms—as PSBC continues to grow, taking the Best Consumer Bank award for a sixth year in a row. The institutional giant is accelerating its transformation into a new retail bank featuring efficient, data-driven interactions between its wholesale and retail operations. The result thus far has been solid growth in total assets, consumer loans, wealth management, and rural credit. Personal deposits at the end of 2023 totaled ¥12.49 trillion, up ¥1.21 trillion from the previous year. Personal banking income rose 6.3%, while thanks in part to a new online lending system, PSBC’s personal loan volume climbed 10.4% to ¥4.47 trillion. Micro lending has been particularly strong, jumping 22% to a record ¥1.39 trillion. And a new, 24-hour trading option for wealth management clients has taken off. PSBC reported more than 660 million customers for the past year but still has found plenty of room to grow.

To the average investor, China’s aging population and environmental challenges may seem unrelated. But investment specialists at Taikang AMC, a subsidiary of Taikang Insurance Group, are capitalizing on a convergence of demographic and green investment paths, earning the firm the inaugural Stars of China award for Most Innovative Asset Manager. A key to Taikang AMC’s innovative approach is its connection to a parent firm operating a leading life-insurance business, which has grown rapidly as the Chinese family structure changes. As more adult children work in cities far from aging moms and dads, pension checks have grown in importance to supplement traditional family support for the elderly; Taikang AMC plays a role in this evolving support system by managing more than ¥300 billion in pension funds. Taikang Insurance is also taking a proactive role in climate adjustment; in 2021, it signed the Principles for Responsible Investment, joining a UN-supported network of institutions working for sustainable investing. Since then, Taikang AMC has issued a variety of green bond products and two passive index funds with green themes: an electric-vehicle ETF and its Mainland Low-Carbon Economy ETF. In May, it became the first asset manager of its kind in China to issue a corporate green asset securitization product. Innovating and investing go hand in hand for Taikang AMC, which manages more than ¥1.5 trillion in assets.

In 1934, an international zone in Shanghai called The Bund was the scene of a debate over office buildings. The debate pitted the British owner of The Bund’s tallest building and a new building project spearheaded by Bank of China (BOC). The debate ended amicably, and today, BOC’s iconic building on The Bund testifies to its leading place in the global banking community. It also claims the first Stars of China prize for Best Bank for Overseas Branch Services. As a Chinese flagship, BOC operates more than 100 overseas branches with nearly 1,000 outlets in 29 countries, from Glasgow to Sao Paulo. BOC gives special attention to Chinese businesses, expatriates, students, and tourists. Offerings include corporate accounts, cross-border yuan settlement, litigation services, and foreign exchange trading. In recent years, BOC’s Dubai and Hong Kong branches have also started offering green bond investments. That building on The Bund was just a first step for a bank that today commands a global footprint.

As Hong Kong’s market integration with mainland China accelerates, financial institutions are clearing a channel. Appropriately, this year’s Stars of China competition honors a leader in market integration, CMB Wing Lung Bank, with the first-ever Star of Hong Kong award. A Hong Kong legend with a 90-year-plus history, CMB Wing Lung works with local and mainland clients in areas such as cross-border bond trading and a mortgage program helping Hong Kongers buy mainland properties through branches across the Hong Kong-Macau-Guangdong Province region and a seamless digital banking system used by 380,000 clients on both sides of the border. Since 2021, the bank has offered a rapidly growing wealth management service connecting mainland and Hong Kong financial markets. As a leader in integration, CMB Wing Lung reported a 7.4% jump in assets between 2022 and 2023 to more than HK$426 billion.

Quality and scale are not always congruent in the consumer credit field, especially during periods of economic stress when household incomes are stretched. Over the past year, however, ICBC has demonstrated that quality and scale can improve side-by-side, on the strength of unique strategies that earned it the Best Consumer Lending Bank award. These center on government-linked programs designed to boost household consumption, home improvement, and other housing-related spending. Other strategies support consumer purchases of clean-energy vehicles, including the electric cars for which China is now famous. All this has helped boost ICBC’s balance of outstanding personal loans to ¥1 trillion-plus. Personal mortgage loans rose ¥97 billion year-on-year to ¥6.2 trillion in 2023, helping Chinese families buy homes even in stressful times.

In Beijing’s state-directed economic model, supporting the real economy is a task shared by every bank. As the country’s largest bank, ICBC plays a critical role, among other things facilitating the largest block of mergers and acquisitions of Chinese companies year after year and earning it the Best Bank for M&A award. ICBC has ranked first on Refinitiv China’s list of financial advisers for onshore and offshore M&A transactions since 2014, chalking up nearly ¥1 trillion in financing and impacting more than 3,000 entities over that period. Between April 2023 and March of this year, the bank led its peers with more than 300 transactions completed and nearly ¥100 billion in M&A loans granted. Recent notable transactions include Huaneng Hydropower’s acquisition of Sichuan Energy for ¥8.6 billion and a shakeup in the electronic display sector when manufacturer BOE acquired HC Semitek for ¥2.1 billion. ICBC also supports cross-border M&A activity.

China’s retail banking customers are clamoring for more personalized financial services, forcing banks to adjust their customer offerings and even their business practices. PSBC has gone beyond adjustments, launching a sweeping effort to improve the quality and efficiency of its service to the real economy, particularly the three-part “sannong” encompassing the agriculture sector, rural communities, and rural residents. PSBC’s retail outlets already serve most of China’s rural areas, but under a transformation strategy called Five Plus One, it aims to expand sannong financing, microfinancing, credit extension services, wealth management, and financial markets trading. The bank has done particularly well in the consumer credit market with a digital online consumer loan product system. At the end of 2023, consumer loans totaled ¥2.86 trillion, up 4.77% from 2022, while personal microlending rose more than 22% to ¥1.39 trillion. PSBC’s ambitious embrace of the sannong earns it the Best Bank for Business Transformation award.

Successful partnerships in the financial world are built, not born. Ping An Private Bank stands out among its peers for building beneficial tie-ups with both family clients and foreign capital managers needing domestic partners to access the Chinese market. This ability to forge ties helped make Ping An this year’s selection as Best Private Bank. The preferred partner for numerous foreign-capital managers starting businesses in China, the bank saw a steady stream of agency sales last year, including products tied to New York-based Neuberger Berman’s qualified domestic limited partnership fund. Further highlighting its ability to cultivate partnerships is a recent upgrade of Ping An’s family office business, which now provides wealth and health management, generational development, charitable planning, and legal and tax-planning services. The bank’s charitable planning unit, an industry pioneer, managed more than ¥100 million as of January, with nearly 40,000 professionals supporting some 200,000 beneficiaries.

Private bank clients value market research that offers investment guidance. But a private bank that provides innovative market research, indexing, customized investment advice, and investor education events can be especially valuable. Huaxia Bank’s service is at the top of the value ladder, earning it this year’s Most Innovative Private Bank award. Entrepreneurs and pensioners are among the client groups receiving customized advice. A platform featuring asset allocation simulations lets the bank’s investment advisers predict outcomes based on a range of product portfolios and allocation strategies. Another investor advisory service is called CREATE (consulting, rational planning, exploring options, allocation advice, transactions, examining outcomes). Investor education events are regularly held for clients. Launched in 2021, the CSI Huaxia Bank Green Economy Wealth Index was China’s first asset allocation index following green and low-carbon activities. Huaxia reported its private-banking client base grew 7% between 2022 and last year, underscoring that value-focused innovation is good for business.

In China, tradition runs as deep as the country’s 5,000-year history runs long. Preserving tradition through culture-related activities plays an important role at the private banking division of Bank of Communications, named this year’s Best Private Bank for Sustainable Investment. Unlike similar awards in past years, BOCOM’s award recognizes that, in the investment field, cultural sustainability is as necessary as environmental and developmental sustainability. The bank leverages appreciation for Chinese culture by linking investment choices to value-added services and brand activities that promote traditional Chinese literature, education, and charity. Through a digital customer marketing center, private banking clients can participate in tailor-made cultural programs that also recommend charitable giving options; one recent success was a fundraiser for blind college students. BOCOM serves more than 80,000 private banking clients with combined assets under management exceeding ¥1.15 trillion.

Balancing business demands and family needs can be daunting for entrepreneurs who take both tasks seriously. BOC, this year’s Best Private Bank for Entrepreneurs, is addressing the problem. Since launching its Entrepreneur Office suite of services in 2022, BOC has fine-tuned the components to build an all-encompassing professional platform with personal, family, business, and social dimensions. One facet is a one-on-one consulting service blending standard, scientific, and professional asset allocation methods. Another integrates private bank, trust, asset management, and insurance elements across the legal and tax domains for a holistic approach to family wealth management. In August, BOC’s private banking unit launched the industry-leading Jia He Ri Xin Family Service Trust, focused on risk isolation, asset allocation, family care, and wealth inheritance. It tailors trust structures and investment strategies in areas such as bond investment and what the bank calls “fixed-income plus quantitative” strategies.

As the Covid-19 crisis fades into history, crossing borders has become common again for those with the means to travel for business, education, and leisure. Wherever Chinese private banking customers land, CMB aims to be there. CMB’s high-quality global service network was a key factor in its selection as Best Private Bank for Ultrahigh-Net-Worth Individuals, providing one-stop solutions for families and businesses in areas including overseas asset planning and management and listed company services. Family office clients can also access overseas health and leisure services as well as entrepreneur exchange and business cooperation platforms. Domestically, CMB has family offices in most major cities. Advisers specialize in investment portfolios, family governance, and corporate activities. The bank addresses legal, tax, and philanthropy issues through task forces focusing on specific client needs.

For many Chinese households, low-threshold wealth management has long been considered a bridge to financial improvement and even financial security. When ICBC specialists noticed their wealth management customers were struggling to understand, choose, and hold products, the bank launched an online financial information platform to make complex services more accessible, inclusive, and convenient. Its mobile platform has since expanded to include analysis and investing toosl for wealth management customers, and the bank has enhanced its online services to support ICBC client managers charged with personalizing products and services. Thanks to these and other customer-centric initiatives, ICBC earned this year’s Best Wealth Management Provider award. With more than 5,000 wealth management products on offer, ICBC dominates the race for clients, with nearly 30 million wealth management customers as of March. Financial education through the bank’s online platform helps customers make decisions, with 20,000-plus articles on investment research, product selection, and other topics.

Some investors argue that risk boundaries have been overstretched by efforts to target investments according to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. BOC, winner of this year’s Best Bank for Sustainable Investment award, is responding to that criticism while continuing to support ESG as a valuable pursuit. Key to its response is risk management. BOC recently revised its risk management policy to incorporate “environmental [climate], social, and governance risks” in its comprehensive risk management system and updated its risk appetite policy to include a qualitative statement about ESG risks. In line with government policy, BOC has included binding requirements related to environmental and social risk management in more than 90 industry credit policies, including agriculture, forestry, mining, oil, and construction. BOC also requires biodiversity protection in credit policies for key industries such as wind power generation, pumped-storage hydropower, and coal power.

Technologically advanced, next-generation nuclear power is part of China’s effort to cut emissions, achieve carbon neutrality, and raise funds for relevant projects through green bonds. A 2023 bond issue for Guangxi Energy Group’s Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant attracted considerable attention, helping earn underwriter CICC this year’s Best Bank for Green Bonds award. CICC has pledged to lead in sustainable finance by encouraging companies to embrace environmental principles. As a state investment bank, its green-bond underwriting activity highlights a national commitment to global sustainable development as well as the plans of the Communist Party Central Committee and State Council. In the year ended March 31, CICC provided financing for ¥349 billion in domestic and $881 million in offshore green bonds. Projects included a ¥821 million issue for photovoltaic installments benefiting rural homes served by Chongqing Electric Power, an electric-vehicle leasing fundraiser for Guangzhou Xiaopeng Motors Technology worth ¥975 million, and an offshore bond issue for the government of Hainan Province. A standout was CICC’s underwriting of ¥300 million in bonds for the Fangchenggang project, to financing the plant’s second and third phases utilizing Chinese reactor technology.

Banks are playing a major role supporting China’s ambitious plan to reach peak emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060; China Bohai Bank, this year’s Best Bank for Corporate Responsibility, is a leader in this effort. Its location in the industrial port city of Tianjin places it in a unique position to contribute to emissions-cutting, green energy-promoting activities and it is a key lender to companies in chemicals, manufacturing, automotive, logistics, and bulk commodities—traditional sectors that are transitioning to clean energy. A recent recipient of a low-interest transition-finance loan was chemical concern Tianjin Bohai Chemical Industry Group. Bohai has also launched special products including green-specific asset-backed loans, carbon-emission rights pledge financing products, and sustainability-linked bonds. Other products, including supply chain financing, are also geared toward industrial projects that harmonize with national emissions goals and improve manufacturing productivity.

Financial sector technology is advancing so rapidly that today’s innovation can quickly spawn tomorrow’s standard practice. So, an innovative bank needs a steady stream of new ideas, programs, and applications. CMB has an especially productive and innovative pipeline, earning it this year’s Most Innovative Bank award. Three product areas have been particularly visible: investor custody services, family trusts tied to private banking, and digital services for retail customers. CMB’s custody offerings include professional, basic, and value-added services, some of which are automated. The result is a full-flow digital investment management system covering securities and equity investments with research, risk control, and data processing, including visual analyses. CMB’s custody portfolio ranks first in the domestic market, at ¥22 trillion. CMB has also been an innovator in family trust offerings, including the first app to give clients one-stop access to trusts, vastly reducing project initiation time and securing the highest market share for the bank. CMB was the first Chinese commercial bank to offer trusts based on equity holdings, insurance, charitable giving, real estate, and investment rights; it also offers products integrating elder care management and family trusts. Other CMB innovations fall into the digital retail side of the business; its CMB APP integrates artificial intelligence and remote consultant services, while a new wealth assistant, Xiao Zhao, provides one-stop wealth management services. As of late 2023, 117 million clients were using CMB APP and CMB Life APP every month.

Some banks let the spirit of innovation guide payment system upgrades in only one or a few client areas. CCB has embraced the spirit systemwide, reaping this year’s Innovation in Payments award. In harmony with a recent State Council directive aimed at optimizing payment services for China’s elderly and foreign visitors, CCB implemented a series of innovative measures including pensioner-friendly, voice-activated commands on the bank’s mobile app and a digital wallet, enabling foreign exchange functions for major currencies including the US dollar and the Thai baht. Some 46,000 CCB ATMs now allow cash withdrawals with foreign credit cards, and the bank has implemented coin-specific cash services for taxis and other public transportation providers. In a green innovation, CCB’s physical credit cards are now being made from environmentally friendly materials.

“The last mile” is a phrase often heard in China’s big cities to describe the role of bike-share services in moving commuters from subway station to office or home. It also describes the role of one of many fintech services offered by CZ, winner of the Innovation in Fintech prize. To help companies in foreign trade navigate the last mile in exchange-rate hedging, CZ operates an online platform for life-cycle exchange-rate management called Zheshang Trading Treasure. The platform, which launched in 2018 and was upgraded last year, encompasses the entire production and operation cycle of companies engaged in foreign trade, helping them improve exchange-rate hedging and control exchange-rate risk. CZ’s fintech prowess also excels with Shuyi Loan, a digital credit products platform for small companies, and Shuke Loan, a similar platform for micro businesses. As of June, Shuyi Loan’s balance topped ¥1.1 billion, with 3,200 customers repaying an average loan of ¥360,000 per household. CZ’s digital empowerment campaign also extends into philanthropic finance as it employs blockchain technology to record the fundraising and utilization of charitable funds on the chain, ensuring that key information is open, transparent, and traceable.

Digital finance has revolutionized transactional elements of supply chain finance, cross-border trade, and e-commerce. Efficiently putting digital technology to work in these and other commercial areas is China Guangfa Bank, winner of this year’s Best Transaction Bank award. For companies needing supply chain finance, Guangfa’s E-Second billing and financing process applies fintech to daily supply chain operations and management, improving the quality and efficiency of its financial services offerings. Companies relying on import- and export-related transactions can avail themselves of the bank’s Cross-border Instant Messenger system and China International Trade Single Window digital platform. Guangfa also deploys blockchain and big data processes for its transaction services. In the e-commerce arena, its Guangshanghui 3.0 system offers unified, one-stop transaction services for merchants with multiple online stores and currencies, including the US and Australian dollars, the euro, and the yen. The service integrates collections and payments, allowing clients to use collected funds for overseas expenses.

Small, medium- and micro-size companies far outnumber big corporations in China and drive much of the nation’s economy. PSBC serves this vital segment, distinguishing itself especially at supporting client risk control to win this year’s Best SME Services Bank award. Smaller companies are notably susceptible to changes that harm their financial health; PSBC addresses these threats with risk control strategies including automatic early warnings and support for customers in default. The bank has popularized intelligent tools such as digital customer profiles, intelligent analysis of statements, and multidimensional risk monitoring, which have boosted risk identification and lowered the bank’s nonperforming loan ratio for this business segment. Recently launched automated services include E Bill Connect, for handling banker’s acceptance bills applications, and online signing and receipt notification. At the end of 2023, the value of PSBC’s inclusive loans to more than 2.1 million SMEs stood at ¥1.46 trillion, accounting for nearly 18% of its total customer loans. The average interest rate was 4.61%, a year-on-year decrease of 24 points.

Coordinating investor services and policy goals for investors living in the world’s second-largest economy calls for both creativity and initiative. This year’s choice for Best Asset Manager, ChinaAMC, consistently answers the call. Sheer size affords the firm a powerful voice; with some $304 billion in assets under management, ChinaAMC serves about 219 million retail and 265,000 institutional investors with more than 400 mutual funds. Initiatives launched last year included the Zhisheng Xinrui Equity Fund, which uses artificial intelligence and quantitative models to build portfolios and optimize trading, and the CSI All Index Medical Device ETF, which offers innovative medical device investing backed by policy support. Other ChinaAMC’s ETFs focus on science and technology companies in the categories of large-cap and over-the-counter trading; mid-caps featuring prominent high-tech companies in strategic emerging industries traded on ChiNext, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s Nasdaq-style subsidiary; and index investment tools covering A-market listings ranging from large-cap to micro-cap. ChinaAMC prides itself on having achieved carbon neutrality at the operational level over the past two years and leading peers in ESG investment.

A strong commitment to supporting the Chinese economy is essential to success for foreign firms jockeying for a share of the country’s huge asset management market. Regulators acknowledged BNP Paribas’ success at this last year when they approved the formation of a joint venture linking the French multinational’s asset management divisions and state-owned Agricultural Bank of China, earning the new joint venture, BNP Paribas ABC Wealth—51% controlled by the French partner—this year’s Best Foreign Bank Asset Manager award. Official media reported the new firm’s assets under management exceeded ¥7.6 billion as of June 30. Ma Shuguang, chairman of ABC Wealth Management, said the tie-up “combines the benefits of the BNP Paribas Group’s global asset management capabilities with ABC Group’s vast customer base, channel advantages, and deep understanding of the local market.” BNP Paribas Asset Management CEO Sandro Pierri says the venture “cements our commitment to a key growth market in Asia. We look forward to supporting investors and savers in China with innovative solutions that complement traditional wealth management services.”

Fundraising collaborations between banks and securities firms are playing an increasingly prominent role supporting China’s push for high-tech industrial development. Particularly prominent is a tie-up between Guotai Jinan Securities and Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, helping the latter win the 2024 Most Advanced Trading Technology award. The collaboration steers investments to a variety of manufacturers in the Lingang New Area, a four-year-old Shanghai industrial zone hosting companies that produce integrated circuits, artificial intelligence products, biomedicine, and clean energy goods. Trading technology deployed through a so-called “investment firm-commercial bank” arrangement streamlines equities funding for manufacturers that have been vetted by regulators and placed on an industrial park “whitelist” of approved companies. The new tie-up also makes financial advisory, underwriting, asset allocation, credit supply, and policy-related resource services available for select manufacturers. Shanghai Rural Commercial’s collaboration with Guotai Jinan, and the trading technology underpinning their effort, gives high-tech development strong support in Lingang.

It’s been said that in sports as in warfare, the best defense is a good offense. Something similar is at work for Bank of Jining, which in recent years has coupled defensive risk control with expanding loan portfolios in an effort to foster localized economic growth. That strategy has earned the bank this year’s Best Bank for Risk Management award. Serving the third-tier city of Jining, the bank in June reported more than ¥212 billion in assets, ¥173 billion in deposits, and a loan balance of ¥119 billion. Those figures were up, respectively, 17%, 23 %, and 10% from a year prior. Risk controls tied to compliance, auditing, and nonperforming loan disposal paved the way for expansion despite the recent economic strain many of China’s smaller cities are suffering. Bank of Jining employs risk managers in each of its 100-plus branches and follows a multistep credit approval process involving independent teams, review committees, and a bank president with veto power.

Strike while the iron is hot is an apt characterization of the recent acceleration in activity supporting global acceptance of the yuan currency, or renminbi. Banks are taking advantage of a global trade climate favoring the Chinese government’s ongoing currency promotion effort, and none has accomplished more in this vein over the past year than CCB, the 2024 Best Bank for Renminbi Internationalization. Between January and June, CCB provided cross-border services in the currency for more than 50,000 current account and capital market clients. It integrates domestic and foreign currency services while offering renminbi solutions to Chinese companies operating abroad, mainly in countries participating in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade group of Asia-Pacific countries. CCB has a history of overseas renminbi support dating to 2014, when its London branch became a UK clearing bank for the currency, operating an offshore renminbi infrastructure. Since then, its cumulative clearing value in the currency has topped ¥100 trillion, making it the largest renminbi clearing bank outside Asia. CCB says its goal is to steadily promote renminbi internationalization in line with China’s Central Financial Work Conference and enhance the ability of cross-border business in the currency to serve the domestic economy.

Between January and August, China’s Ministry of Commerce reported a 2.2% year-on-year increase in investment by Chinese companies in the more than 130 countries served by the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A powerhouse behind this global activity is ICBC, this year’s Best Bank for Belt and Road. A go-to for cross-border financing, ICBC has played a decisive role in hundreds of successful projects situated in more than half of all BRI countries, providing export credit, syndicated loans, lease factoring, and financing for mergers, acquisitions, and purchases of aircraft and ships. The bank’s advisory services cover oil and mineral projects, pipelines, and terminals. ICBC also leads in supporting BRI’s contribution to lowering carbon dioxide emissions, aiming for carbon neutrality through green finance. The bank is a driving force behind BRI-related growth, including a 21% year-on-year increase in project contract value to $149 billion in the January-August period.