Industrial Bank: To be a pathfinder of China-style sustainable development practice

Becoming one of the first batch of International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) "International Sustainability Disclosure Standards Advanced Learning Partners" in China, MSCI's ESG rating was upgraded from A to AA, becoming the only bank to receive the highest rating in the domestic banking industry for five consecutive years, and the highest score among domestic peers in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA......

In recent years, ESG has become a "wind vane" and "reference system" for the sustainable and high-quality development of enterprises. IB deeply practices the political and people's nature of financial work, innovates the ESG practice model of "embracing righteousness and benefit", actively explores the path of ESG practice that takes into account Chinese characteristics and international standards, bravely becomes a pathfinder of Chinese-style sustainable development practice, and contributes to the construction of a financial power.

Explore the path of ESG localization

Promote the "Chinese experience" to go global

Sound and effective corporate governance is the core of ESG management and the fundamental guarantee for the sustainable development of commercial banks. IB is the first in the industry to establish the concept of sustainable corporate governance, and is committed to actively exploring the "roadmap" for ESG localization from the perspective of corporate governance.

In 2022, the Bank officially renamed the "Strategy Committee" of the Board of Directors as the "Strategy and ESG Committee", formulated the ESG Policy, clarified that the Board of Directors assumes the ultimate responsibility for ESG management, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors serves as the leader of the ESG Leading Group, and sets up the first ESG management center in the industry. We have built an industry-leading ESG decision-making and management mechanism, compiled annual ESG management system construction points, and fully integrated them into the company's strategy, major decisions, daily operations and employee behaviors, so that ESG can take root and blossom throughout the bank.

While promoting the "localization" of ESG, IB also actively integrates into the high-level opening up of the financial sector, serves the construction of the "Belt and Road", transforms ESG leading advantages into differentiated service capabilities, and helps Chinese enterprises "go global" and tell China's ESG story well. In April this year, IB jointly launched a global consulting cooperation project with the International Business School of Zhejiang University, Cambridge Jiazhi Business School and Honor Terminal Co., Ltd. in the mode of bank-university-enterprise-enterprise cooperation, focusing on the pain points and difficulties faced by Chinese enterprises in "going global" in the context of the EU's green transformation, and is committed to providing them with "financial + non-financial" combined services at all stages of the transformation process, supporting enterprises to build an ESG management structure that meets international and domestic standards, and enhancing the international competitiveness and overseas influence of national brands.

Advance to the main battlefield of financial services

"Gathering momentum and empowering" for the development of new quality productivity

This year, "accelerating the development of new quality productivity" was written into the government work report for the first time, and was listed as the first of the top ten tasks in 2024.

IB has always adhered to the fundamental purpose of serving the real economy, placed the development of new quality productive forces in a prominent position, optimized the financial supply structure, focused on promoting the transformation of traditional industries and the growth of emerging industries, and helped build a modern industrial system supported by advanced manufacturing. As of the end of 2023, the balance of manufacturing loans of IB was 728.257 billion yuan, an increase of 24.43% over the end of the previous year. The proportion of loans to strategic emerging industries in corporate finance increased by 6.22 percentage points to 12.84%.

Scientific and technological innovation is the core element in the development of new quality productive forces. Focusing on the national industrial layout and the regional resource endowment of science and technology innovation, IB actively builds a science and technology financial service system that is compatible with scientific and technological innovation, innovatively launches the "technology flow" credit management and control model, continuously improves the relay, all-round and diversified service plans of "online + offline", "commercial bank + investment bank" and "finance + non-finance", and does a good job in science and technology finance, so as to promote the virtuous cycle of "science and technology-industry-finance". By the end of 2023, IB had 159,600 technology finance customers, an increase of 30.61% over the beginning of the year. The balance of science and technology financial loans was 827 billion yuan, an increase of 27.84% over the beginning of the year.

New quality productivity is itself green productivity. Focusing on "pollution reduction, carbon reduction, green expansion and growth", IB has effectively connected green finance and transition finance, coordinated and supported the green transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the development and growth of green emerging industries, continuously improved the carbon financial service system, helped build a green and low-carbon circular economy system, and promoted the green and low-carbon transformation of development mode. As of the end of 2023, the bank provided customers with a balance of green financing of 1.89 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.14% from the end of the previous year. The balance of green loans was 809.019 billion yuan, an increase of 26.99% over the beginning of the year, and the supported green projects could save 9.52 million tons of standard coal, 22.92 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 10.55 million tons of water per year.

It is reported that in order to help achieve the "dual carbon" goal in mainland China, IB took the lead in adopting the "Immediate Implementation of Climate Neutrality" initiative of the United Nations Climate Change Convention in China's banking industry, formulated its own carbon neutrality goal and roadmap, and made concerted efforts in various aspects such as green office, green travel, green activities, green consumption and green construction, promoted green operation, and strived to accumulate experience for reference for the domestic banking industry to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality in its own operations.

Polishing the true character of finance for the people

Strive to be a bank that satisfies the people and has temperature

Rural revitalization and industrial prosperity are the key. In August 2023, IB established a working system for financial correspondents, allowing financial correspondents to work as financial consultants for the government and enterprises, building a bridge between financial institutions and the government, enterprises, villages and the masses, and striving to open up the "last mile" of financial assistance to the revitalization of rural industries, and exploring financial service models with IB characteristics in accordance with local conditions. At present, the bank has selected more than 900 financial correspondents.

Relying on digital technology, IB innovatively applies the technology of "Internet of Things + Blockchain + AI" to build a "digital supervision platform for biological assets", which makes living biological assets credible and monitorable, and solves the problem of difficult financing for animal husbandry in the past. Innovate and launch a satellite remote sensing system, establish crop planting portraits, and provide scientific and technological support for accurate credit extension in the planting industry...... Promote the flow of capital elements to rural areas and extend modern financial services to rural areas, so as to contribute to common prosperity. As of the end of 2023, the balance of the bank's agriculture-related loans was 664.760 billion yuan, an increase of 21.59% from the beginning of the year.

Digital technologies also provide a new path to financial inclusion. In recent years, IB has accelerated its digital transformation, promoted the integrated development of inclusive finance and digital finance, connected multiple scenarios, improved products and services, and built a new model of differentiated digital inclusive financial services. On the one hand, we will make a fuss about "energy loans" and "will loans", build and operate the "IB Inclusive and Inclusive" open service platform, strengthen technology leadership and data empowerment, and provide a full range of "financial + non-financial" comprehensive services for small, medium and micro enterprises with financing services as the core. Up to now, there are 24,900 registered users of IB's inclusive platform, with a total of 301.5 billion yuan of financing needs. As of the end of 2023, the balance of inclusive small and micro loans of the bank was 500.965 billion yuan, an increase of 23.95% from the end of the previous year.

Financial consumer protection work is a concentrated embodiment of the political and people's nature of financial work. IB has always adhered to the principle of serving the people with finance, actively carried out special actions to deal with consumer protection complaints, and effectively safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of financial consumers, and the consumer protection evaluation of the People's Bank of China has been rated A for three consecutive years.

At the same time, IB adheres to the principle of financial convenience and benefit to the people, so as to make financial services more warm. On the one hand, we will actively optimize the layout of outlets, accelerate the transformation for the elderly, and build 287 smart outlets and 2,085 "public welfare" Huimin stations, and strive to do a good job in the affairs of the masses and be a good caring person for the masses; On the other hand, it has continuously improved and improved the public welfare and charity system that integrates normal donations and disaster assistance, "helping the poor", "donating to education" and "disaster fighting and relief", deeply participated in targeted poverty alleviation, rural revitalization, common prosperity and other undertakings, donated more than 650 million yuan in the past ten years, and established the IB Charity Foundation, which has made the concept of financial goodness more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. (Contributed by: Industrial Bank Nanping Branch)