OREANDA-NEWS. July 03, 2014. In recent years, ICBC has consistently prioritized its support to the green economy, and optimized its credit allocation to better serve ecological and environmental protection. According to statistics, as of the end of May 2014, the balance of loans extended by the Bank to ecological protection, clean energy, energy conservation and emission reduction, cyclic economy and other green sectors exceeded RMB600 billion, which has strongly bolstered the development of green economy.

ICBC has put strong emphasis on financial services for the energy conservation and emission reduction area, actively supporting key energy saving projects, key environmental protection projects, and technology upgrading and renovation projects that adopt advanced energy conservation and emission reduction technologies. Its credit has been primarily granted to such areas as regional heat and power cogeneration, coal-fired generating units desulfurization and denitration renovation, sewage treatment, pollution control in key river basins, environmental management projects, and comprehensive resources utilization. In addition, the Bank offers preferential loans and subsidies and other supportive measures to green economy-related projects, and channel credit resources to low energy consumption, low emission, low pollution and high efficiency sectors.

According to an executive with ICBC, the Bank is one of the first among Chinese banks to introduce and seriously promote green credits groupwide. It has been committed to establishing a long-term green credit mechanism over the past few years. In 2013, the Bank established correlation between green credit classification and enterprise ratings, and transplanted the correlation to the credit process. It is required to timely identify the green credit classification label of customers throughout the procedure of due diligence, credit rating and grant, review and approval, contract signing, release approval and post-loan management, and use it as a key reference to make general evaluation and credit decision. As of the end of December 2013, the number of environment-friendly and qualified environment- protecting customers and the balance of loans granted thereto both accounted for over 99.9% of ICBC's domestic corporate customers and the balance of loans extended thereto, which has ensured compliance with environmental protection in the development of its credit business.