OREANDA-NEWS. December 19, 2012. ICBC has taken the support for modern service sector to its full swing since January this year. The strategic move is a response to industry restructuring and upgrade. More loans are offered to modern service companies. At the end of third quarter this year, ICBC has disbursed over RMB 1 trillion in loans to modern service companies, to RMB 1034.1 billion, an increase of RMB 255.1 billion, or 32.74% from the beginning of the year, and 3.3 times the average growth of ICBC corporate loans. By now, ICBC is the biggest lender in China to modern service industry.

An ICBC executive said, since 2008, ICBC has given priority to extend loans to modern services sector. Growth of the sector is impressive marked by the fast growth of loans. ICBC provides loans to companies engaged in different modern services - cultural, tourism, modern logistics, medical and health, new type of commerce and trade, information services, software,.

Modern services, a knowledge-intensive sector of high potential featuring high value-added, high growth, plays a crucial role in industrial restructuring and consumption upgrade. Meanwhile, the wide range of modern services calls for a variety of financial services. Many modern service companies take knowledge, technology, creativity as their production material, services are their products which are "light assets". Unsound evaluation practices and market systems on the ownership of such intellectual property rights (copyright, trademark right and invention patent) and intangible assets bring more uncertainties and risks for banks to extend credit.

In view of this, ICBC offers solutions designed for modern services companies engaging in production or consumer service, using first-hand data from market study. At the heart of product offering is a full spectrum of financial products and services available for different customers in this sector covering most of the top-class modern service companies. All modern service companies welcome these ICBC products and services which help them achieve win-win with the Bank.

Modern logistics companies are the most typical production service companies. Logistic industry is moving to integrated logistics based on information technology. ICBC bundles financial services and logistics services into new services such as merchandize finance to meet specific needs of the logistics companies and their upstream/downstream customers for integrated financial products. An example is the "TransFar Express Loan", a unique financial service for small and mid-range logistics enterprises launched by ICBC to Zhejiang TransFar Road-port Logistics Development Co., Ltd, one of the largest logistics base companies in China. Through flexible guarantee options, ICBC has extended a record of more than RMB 300 million in loans to thousands of small and mid-range logistics enterprises under TransFar.

In lending to modern service companies engaging in consumer services, especially those in creative business featuring "light assets" which "can be seen, no way to touch, cannot be mortgaged", ICBC takes a different approach. Instead of using fixed assets as collateral like those in conventional industries, ICBC differentiates the riskiness of the company's management capability, experience and performance, professional team, or even the key company staff. Risk assessment is concentrated on the company's real core asset - "people". ICBC introduces an innovative guarantee option - "joint guarantee of copyright pledge + actual control person" to address their difficulty in accessing bank loans.

Moreover, ICBC provides a full spectrum of services to modern service companies covering investment banking, electronic banking, settlement and cash management, corporate deposit, corporate annuity and asset custody. Examples are a platform for piaowutong.com to sell tickets for their art performances nationwide, TV-bank (digital TV bank) services for many cable TV including Beijing Gehua CATV Network, which were warmly received by all.