On the latest list of Top 300 Asian Banks released in the July issue of the Hong Kong-based financial journal, Asiaweek, CCB, with the highest net interest income and net profit, is rated as the “most profitable bank in Asia”.

Each year Asiaweek releases the list of Top 300 Asian Banks based on the total assets and other key performance indexes of the banks of 12 Asian countries and regions. On this year’s list CCB ranks the 7^th in total assets. The ranking of the big four Chinese banks all rises considerably over last year. The rapid growth of the Chinese banking industry not only adds strength to the Asian banking industry but also brings about new changes in the structure of Asia’s banking industry. With a net interest income of US$14.2234 billion and a net profit of US$5.7483 billion, CCB for the first time rises as the most profitable bank in Asia. 

On the list, CCB, with its total asset ranking the 7^th, is registered with a total loan of US$292.314 billion, only 42 percent of the total loans of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ bank which ranks the first in total asset. However, CCB’s net interest income and net profit are 41.2% 30.9% higher than that of UFJ respectively, showing CCB’s profitability not only is the strongest in China but also eclipses other Asian banks.

The outstanding performance of CCB makes the bank appear in the cover story of the July issue of Asiaweek. The cover story The New Construction of China Construction Bank says, “To become the most profitable bank in Asia not only changes the fate of CCB itself but more importantly the image of the entire Chinese banking industry. It also makes this state-owned bank, one of China’s big four, a well-know name in the global market”; behind CCB “we can see the Chinese banking industry is integrating into the international market and competing internationally through reforming its management system.” 

Earlier, CCB took the lead in tier-one capital on the list of Top 100 Chinese Banks released by the Britain-based journal The Banker. In addition to the tier-one capital, CCB’s pre-tax profit, average profit ratio of capital, return on assets, capital adequacy and asset quality index (lowest NPL ratio) all topped China‘s four big commercial banks. CCB’s pre-tax profit reached RMB55.364 billion, ranking the first on the list Top 100 Chinese Banks.

Since the launch of the shareholding reform and the IPO, CCB has conducted effective innovation. On the one hand, it keeps improving the corporate governance mechanism and pushing ahead the organizational reform and strategic transition, and on the other hand, focusing on the market-driven business philosophy it makes great efforts to optimize business process, improve product development and management system, control risks effectively, accelerate product innovation targeted at key market and customer groups, strengthen marketing and customer services and has achieved rapid and stable business growth and raised comprehensive strength considerably. It not only becomes the bank with the strongest comprehensive competitiveness, marketing capacity, risk control ability, customer service capacity and profitability among Chinese financial institutions but also builds the leadership in the entire Asian region driving the steady growth of the regional financial industry.

After the IPO, CCB has enhanced the transparency of information disclosure and applied the internationally accepted accounting principles in disclosing financial data. It operates as an international bank in the real sense and in turn its huge profitability is well recognized by the market.

According to the analysis of the Hong Kong media, among Chinese banks CCB enjoys a sound performance and its return on capital and return on equity are both fairly high among listed banks. Some experts even note that the biggest asset of CCB is not the tangible assets which can be measured by money, but its sound credit built over the years, business network composed of 14,500 branches and valuable experience of corporate governance development, organizational reform and risk management innovation which should all be attributed to the talent and hard work of the bank’s about 310,000 staffs.