Asiamoney China Retail Banking Awards

Many Chinese banks have made impressive progress in promoting technology innovation, but the bank that has pushed furthest in all aspects of its business is China Merchants Bank, led by Zhang Dong.

As the largest bank in China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is never worried about not having enough retail clients. By June 2019, the bank boasted 627 million retail customers, issued 874 million new debit cards and 154 million new credit cards. ICBC also has the largest number of online banking clients among all Chinese banks.

China Merchants Bank had more than 90 million active credit cards by the end of the first six months of 2019, ranking fifth in the country. However, the volume of CMB’s credit card transactions grew 12% year on year and reached Rmb2.04 trillion ($290 billion), ranking top among all Chinese banks and Rmb420 billion more than the nearest rival. CMB also managed to secure the top spot in both credit-card business revenue and offshore credit-card transaction volume in 2019.

China’s urban population is among the most tech-savvy in the world, yet members of its rural population often have much more basic needs. China Construction Bank, more than any other bank in China, has been able to serve both populations.

In a challenging market, some have been nimble in transforming themselves in to winners, often through good use of technology

PSBC continues to lead domestic banks in providing and promoting inclusive finance across China by running the most extensive network in rural areas among domestic banks.

China Merchants Bank is widely recognized as a technology leader in China’s banking sector. This award is to recognize the remarkable progress the bank has made to gain a foothold in China’s mobile payment market, which is dominated by domestic technology firms.

Among Chinese banks, Agricultural Bank of China has the largest retail client pool for online banking. In recent years, ABC has consistently ranked number one among domestic banks in terms of transactions generated by retail online banking and mobile phone banking operations.