OREANDA-NEWS. March 03, 2011. Earlier, ICBC has been named the "Best Private Bank in China" at the "Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey 2010" organized by Euromoney magazine, edging ahead many foreign and Chinese banks in China offering private banking services. Meanwhile, ICBC received the highest number and level of accolades among the peers by also winning 9 category awards including fixed income portfolio management by private banks, lending/financing solutions, private equity investment by private banks, trust services and corporate advisory for private banking clients. Industry insiders commented the awards to ICBC reflected the leading position of the Bank in China for private banking business, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

As related, ICBC obtained the first private banking license in China issued by China Banking Regulatory Commission in March 2008. Since then, ICBC maintains good momentum on the business with fast and healthy growth in terms of the number of high net worth customers and the scale of assets under management. As of end of 2010, ICBC secured more than 18,000 private banking customers, asset under management surpassed RMB 350 billion, representing 4.2 times and 4.7 times respectively of the amount before the set up of Private Banking Department.

General Manager Zhang Qi of ICBC Private Banking Department said, ICBC currently has private banking sub-departments in ten cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Taiyuan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Jinan, Zhengzhou, Chengdu to establish presence in key economic areas of China and a horizontal management model to respond customer demands quickly. When it comes to private banking, ICBC also places top priority on service quality improvement in an effort to offer differential and integrated professional services oriented to high net worth customers. "We are no longer simple sales persons selling products, we offer proposal according to the customers' wealth targets, we draw up total solutions incorporating corporate and private banking, investment and finance, financial services and value-added services", said Zhang Qi. "This kind of integrated solution fully reflects the professional service ability and rich resources of ICBC private banking."

Euromoney magazine is a flagship financial publication in the world. Every year the magazine selects financial institutions that stand out in terms of excellence. Winners of the "Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey" were selected based on the response by the financial peers and professional institutions. All the indexes used for the evaluation are authoritative indexes accepted in the global banking community.