（編者：張建國行長日前接受英國《歐洲貨幣》雜誌專訪，該雜誌2010年9月號世行年會會刊刊登了專訪文章。正文後附中譯文。）

 

Zhang Jianguo, president of China Construction Bank, one of China’s big four commercial banks, talks to Euromoney about his company’s development and unique characteristics.

How did China Construction Bank grow from being the vehicle funding China’s construction projects in the 1950s and 1960s to the second largest bank in mainland China, as well as the second largest in the world by market capitalization?

China Construction Bank was established in 1954. At the very beginning it was a department of the Ministry of Finance. During that time the bank was responsible for the supervision of funding construction investment of the nation. Then the central government decided to reform the banking sector and in the 1990s all specialized banks developed into commercial banks.

In 2004 we started the restructuring reform and attracted foreign investment, and now China Construction Bank has become the second largest commercial bank in China with Bank of America as our second largest shareholder and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings the third. In 2005 we went public in Hong Kong, which means we were the first bank to go public among the ‘big four’ in China, and we landed in Shanghai’s A share market in 2007.

The past few years we have maintained very good results from our operations and this spring the total assets of the bank exceeded RMB10 trillion. We have made great progress in our service to customers, risk management capability and overall competitiveness. The quality of our assets is also good, and at the end of this June the non-performing loan ratio was just 1.22%.

In the past, the several big banks in China focused on different business areas. China Construction Bank mainly operated in the domestic market with overseas business accounting for a small proportion of our overall business. At that time Bank of China played the role of the bank that served foreign trade and the international market. But in 1990s the five big banks namely Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Bank of Communications, were allowed to go abroad when the overseas business of our bank began to develop rapidly. Now we have branches in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Ho Chi Minh City, New York, Johannesburg and Singapore. We have a subsidiary in London, and an investment arm and a retail arm in Hong Kong. We have also obtained approval to upgrade our Sydney rep office to a branch from the Australian banking regulators. We are also planning to set up a rep office in Moscow by the end of this year.

Why was the decision made to expand abroad, and how have you approached your expansion efforts?

Four years ago the senior management decided our overseas development strategy. The reason is simple: China’s economy is highly related to the world and many of our clients, both individual clients and corporate clients, are going abroad so we needed to expand our global presence and enlarge our network overseas to provide better service to our customers. Meanwhile, our overseas development enables us to learn advanced management concepts and experience from foreign banks

We are more of a domestic bank with overseas business accounting for less than 3% of the overall business. Therefore, we intend to grow organically in the global market while also welcoming acquisitions if appropriate.

As one of the big four in China, what are the unique competitive strengths of China Construction Bank?

China Construction Bank was once in charge of the appropriation for treasury investment and served as a specialized bank responsible for infrastructure construction credit. Therefore, we have strong experience and overall ability to serve big customers and projects. For example, I was told that we can have three or four task forces serving nuclear power plant projects independently. None of the other big banks can accomplish this task.

Also, China Construction Bank offers special project pricing consultancy; we are the only bank among Chinese commercial banks to offer this service. We were the pioneer in the reform of the Chinese banking system. In the 1990s, when the central government decided that the specialized banks needed to be converted to commercial banks, we were among the first. And in 2003, when the central government decided to reform the big four banks, China Construction Bank got the first opportunity. Up until now China Construction Bank is taking a leading role in all banking changes in China.

At the same time we cannot only serve the big customers or projects. Years ago, we focused on enlarging the number of customers by expanding our retail banking business and SME financial service, and improving services to the ‘three rurals’ - namely agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and institutions such as hospitals and schools. We now have more than 260 million personal accounts.

Chinese banks were less hard-hit by the recent financial crisis than their Western counterparts, and seem to have recovered quicker. Why do you think this was?

There are a lot of reasons. First, the demand from China’s domestic market is huge. Chinese banks mainly serve domestic economy which recovers very quickly. Second, Chinese banks are little involved in financial derivative products. Third, great achievements have been made in the financial reform, which has laid a solid foundation for recovery. Fourth, the Chinese banking industry has not been completely opened up to the outside world. For example, the capital account is not fully opened yet.

Western banks were over-innovated, especially regarding derivatives products, which is why they were so badly impacted by the crisis. The crisis gives us a good opportunity to learn how to balance financial innovation and risk management.

China Construction Bank was not as hard-hit as other financial institutions, like the big European banks, but we were affected, especially some of our clients that deal with import and export, predominantly SMEs in southern China – they got a lot of negative impact which led to certain amount of non-performing loans.

But overall we are in a good position among our peers. We realized the importance of early warning, especially when it comes to dealing with clients in import/export and those just relying on their low-price advantage.

We have to admit that though the impact of the crisis was minor it made it clear to us that our overseas assets were very limited and that we didn’t have a very adequate level of innovation. In China, most of the financial market products introduced over the years came from Western banks. I have worked in the industry for 28 years, at different banks in China, and although I say this in connection to China Construction Bank，I think that all of the Chinese commercial banks have the same problem with innovation. China is becoming more interdependent with other countries. Our clients are interacting more and more overseas so if China Construction Bank didn’t have a presence in these foreign countries we would run the risk of losing a lot of opportunities and clients. Our clients also have more and more sophisticated financial service needs; not just limited to loans and deposits. So we have worked out a comprehensive overseas development plan.

How did the financial crisis alter your procedures and approaches to risk management and future development?

We have implemented risk management procedures. After we went through the internal risk procedure we have continued to offer support to our clients that were negatively impacted by the crisis and have some temporary issues.

Another impact was reflected in our internal operations, especially regarding our overseas business. Some foreign securities we have bought were downgraded and our loans granted to overseas clients were too concentrated in a few sectors. After the crisis we strengthened our management for those financial market businesses and overseas institutions and we improved our management in regard to national evaluation and also the issuer credit analysis and internal operational authorities.

In terms of IT development we have learnt good lessons and best practices from global advanced banks, like which kind of products should be sent to head office for approval, and we have further developed these kinds of policies.

We have built a very good risk management IT system by adopting many tools and products from the international market, other companies and our strategic partners and in-house development of tools and products. We are also trying to improve the managements systems, not just the IT systems. We have named 38 risk officers in every tier-1 branch and established a sound risk management system.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities and concerns for the Chinese banking sector in the near future?

To cope with the changing market and environment, the central government and regulators change the policy from time to time. Therefore it is very important for the senior management in commercial banks to be able to predict and judge the environment and take advantage of opportunities. We think there will be a lot of good opportunities with infrastructure in the north-eastern and western provinces of China and the structural adjustment and industrial upgrading in east coastal region.

We have taken a lot of efforts to foresee changes in the system, analyze the market and analyze the impact of the policies set out by the central government and regulators. Our efforts over the past few years have been very successful.

The Chinese government implemented a stimulus plan in November 2008. According to our own situation, we followed the plan and extended loans to target customers but, starting from March last year, while other banks were going through the stimulus-led lending spree we had already realized the risks and issued guidelines to restrict new loans to certain industries. For instance, loan growth in property development sector each year is restricted to RMB30 billion.

Last year the whole banking industry in China experienced a large growth in loans and that has raised a lot of concern and worries. In January this year we launched a number of risk management measures that can properly examine the loans extended last year and the year before last. We are paying great attention to loans with collaterals or guarantees. What we are trying to do is to evaluate the quality of those collateral guarantees.

Our ratio of non-performing loans is going down. By the end of June the ratio was 1.22%. It is not only the ratio, but also the amount, which has been reduced by RMB7 billion compared with the beginning of this year. So we are confident that we can maintain very good asset quality.

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譯：中國建設銀行：中國銀行業改革發展的先行者

中國四大商業銀行之一——中國建設銀行行長張建國，就公司發展及建行之獨特性與《歐洲貨幣》雜誌進行了交流。

中國建設銀行在上世紀50年代和60年代是如何從經辦中國基本建設投資的撥款的機構成長為中國大陸第二大銀行，並且是全球市值第二大銀行？

中國建設銀行成立於1954年，最初隸屬於財政部。在那期間，建行主要是經辦國家基本建設投資的撥款監督等工作。之後，中央政府決定對銀行業進行改革，並在上世紀九十年代將所有專業銀行轉變成為商業銀行。

2004年，我們開始股份制改造並引進外國戰略投資者。現在，建行成為中國第二大國有控股商業銀行，美國銀行及新加坡淡馬錫控股公司分別是建行第二大股東及第三大股東。2005年我們于香港掛牌上市，成為中國四大行中第一家上市的銀行，2007年我們回歸上海A股市場。

過去的幾年裏，我們保持著優秀的經營業績，總資産躍至十萬億元人民幣以上。服務水準、風險管理能力和綜合競爭力都有了明顯提升，資産品質亦保持良好，截至今年6月30日，我們的不良貸款率僅為1.22%。

過去，中國幾家大型銀行的業務經營重點有所區別。中國建設銀行的業務大多在國內，海外業務較少。當時，中國銀行在外貿服務及國際市場中扮演重要角色。但是在上世紀九十年代，工、農、中、建、交五大銀行都獲得了走向國際市場的許可，從那時起，建行海外業務發展開始加快。現在建行在東京、首爾、香港、法蘭克福、胡志明市、紐約、約翰內斯堡以及新加坡均設有分行，在倫敦設有子銀行，在香港擁有投資銀行及零售業務公司。胡志明市分行於今年年初正式開業，雪梨代表處升級為分行的申請也已獲得澳大利亞銀行監管部門的批准，我們還計劃於今年年內在莫斯科設立代表處。

為什麼建行決定海外擴張？建行是如何進行海外擴張的？

四年前，建行制定了海外發展戰略。理由很簡單：中國經濟與世界聯繫非常密切，我們許多客戶，包括個人客戶和公司客戶正走向海外，所以我們需要拓展全球業務並擴大海外網路，為客戶提供更好的服務。同時，發展海外業務也使我們有機會借鑒國外銀行的先進管理理念和經驗。

目前我們的業務重心還在國內業務，海外業務佔比不到3％。所以，我們有意在國際市場進行自主的成長髮展，同時也會把握時機進行適當的收購。

作為中國四大行之一，中國建設銀行的獨特競爭優勢是什麼？

由於中國建設銀行歷史上曾負責國家財政投資撥款工作，經歷過從事基本建設信貸的國家專業銀行發展階段，我們在基本建設金融服務領域有著豐富經驗和競爭優勢。例如，有人告訴我，我們建行的三四個工作團隊就能獨立地服務一個核電廠項目。其他大型銀行都無法做到這些。

此外，中國建設銀行提供項目造價諮詢的特別業務，這是中國的商業銀行中獨一無二的。建行是中國銀行業改革的先行者。上世紀九十年代，中央政府決定將專業銀行轉為商業銀行之時，建行是第一批。2003年，當中央決定改革四大銀行時，建行又獲得了優先機會。直到現在，中國建設銀行在中國銀行業變革中一直扮演著領先的角色。

當然，我們不僅為大客戶或大項目繼續提供優質服務。幾年前，我們開始拓展零售銀行業務及中小企業金融服務，以擴大客戶數目，我們現在有超過2.6億個人賬戶。我們也在不斷改善對“三農”（ 即農業，農村和農民）的服務，同時也支援醫院和學校等機構的發展。

與西方同業相比，中資銀行受到近期金融危機的負面影響較小，而且恢復也似乎較快。您認為是什麼原因？

原因有很多，比如，一是中國國內需求市場大，銀行主要服務國內經濟，而中國經濟回升較快；二是中國的銀行從事金融衍生産品的很少；三是近年來金融改革取得很大成就，有基礎；四是中國金融業還沒有完全開放，資本項下就沒全開放等等。

西方銀行過度創新，尤其在衍生産品方面，這就是為何危機給他們帶來嚴重影響的原因。這場危機為我們提供了學習如何平衡金融創新和風險防範的好機會。

與其他金融機構如歐洲大型銀行相比，建行受到的衝擊較小，但我們也受到了影響。一些從事進出口貿易的客戶，尤其是中國南方的中小型企業，受到很大的負面影響，並産生一些不良貸款。

但總體來説，我們在同業中處於一個良好的地位。我們認識到了預警的重要性，尤其應對從事進出口及其他依靠低價優勢的客戶。

不得不承認，雖然危機對我們影響不大，但是我們從中看到了我們的海外資産非常有限，而且創新水準不足。多年來，大部分在中國金融市場推出的産品均源自西方銀行。我在這個行業已有二十八年的從業經驗，並曾在不同的中資銀行工作。雖然我剛才提到的問題是從建行的立場出發，但是我認為所有中國商業銀行都存在創新的問題。中國與其他國家相互依賴性不斷增強。我們的客戶與海外的互動越來越多，如果建行在這些海外國家沒有機構，我們將會面臨失去很多機會及客戶的風險。同時，我們客戶的金融服務需求也變得更多更複雜，不再僅限于貸款及存款。因此，我們制定了一個全面的海外發展計劃。

此次金融危機如何改變建行在風險管理和未來發展方面的程式及方式？

我們已經執行了風險管理的程式。在經過內部風險程式檢查後，我們繼續支援了一些受危機影響而暫時有困難的客戶。

危機的另一個影響反映在我們的內部運營上，尤其是海外業務方面。我們購買的一些外國債券評級受到了影響，而且我們向國外客戶提供的貸款也過度集中在某些行業。危機發生後，我們加強了金融市場業務和海外機構的管理，並改進了我們在國家風險評估、發行人信用分析以及內部運營授權的管理。

在資訊科技發展方面，我們從全球先進銀行汲取了教訓，並學習了他們成功做法，例如什麼類型的産品應必須得到總行的批准，我們已完善了相關政策。

我們通過採用很多國際市場、其他公司、戰略合作夥伴和工具及産品的內部研發，建立了優良的風險管理資訊系統。不僅是資訊技術系統，我們還努力改善管理系統。我們已在一級分行委任風險總監，共38人，以建立健全風險管理制度。

在不久的將來，您認為中國銀行業最大的機會及最值得關注的方面是什麼？

為了適應不斷變化的市場及環境，中央政府及監管機構不時制定有針對性的政策。因此，商業銀行的高管層的預測能力、環境判斷能力和把握機遇的能力是非常重要的。我們認為，在中國東北部及西部省份的基礎建設、東部沿海地區的結構性調整及産業升級方面會有很多好機會。

我們已進行了一系列的工作來預測經濟形勢的變化、分析市場和中央政府及監管機構所制定政策對銀行産生的影響。在過去幾年裏，我們一直很成功。

2008年11月，中國政府實施了經濟刺激計劃。我們按計劃並根據自身實際情況向目標客戶發放貸款。但是，自去年三月，當其他銀行仍根據經濟刺激計劃放貸時，我們已察覺相關的風險，並制定政策，限制向某些行業發放新貸款。例如，在房地産開發信貸方面，每年新增貸款不超過300億人民幣。

去年，整個中國銀行業的貸款大幅增長，引起了不少關注及憂慮。今年一月，我們推出了一系列風險管理措施，這些措施幫助我們有效地審查和評估了去年及前年發放的貸款。我們也十分重視抵押或擔保類貸款，正試圖推出評估抵押擔保的品質的相關措施。

我們的不良貸款率在不斷下降。截至6月底，我們的不良貸款比率為1.22％。不僅是不良貸款率，不良貸款金額與今年年初相比已減少了70億人民幣。因此，我們有信心和能力保持非常良好的資産品質。