Now, investors can trade funds at home through ICBC Internet Banking by simply clicking the mouse. This information is sent out from the signing ceremony of "Cooperation and Promotion Agreement in Online Funds" between ICBC and 16 Fund Management Companies on April 24 in Beijing.
It is introduced that ICBC and 16 Fund Companies ICBC Credit Suisse, Huaan, GTJA-Allianz, China Universal, Fullgoal, Franklin Templeton Sealand, GF Fund, Rong Tong, BOC International, Industrial Fund, SYWG BNP Paribas, Bao Ying, Boshi, Galaxy, Lion Fund, China Southern jointly launched a one-stop online service platform Fund Channel for enquiry, online trading and interactive exchange on funds.
Through this channel, investors can make enquiry on the details of tens of open-ended funds sold by ICBC on behalf, trade funds through ICBC Personal Internet Banking "Banking@home" at anytime anywhere, even exchange investment opinions with experienced finance specialists from ICBC and Fund Companies at ICBC Forum or through online consultancy activities.
In addition, ICBC "Banking@home" became the first one in China to offer a spectrum of services for investors to self-help open Fund Account and TA Account of Fund Companies at their convenience.
Professionals believed that the launch of the Fund Channel was good news to all investors, ICBC and Fund Companies. In the past, investors have to go to bank business offices and securities companies several times for trading open-ended funds. Now, in ICBC fund channel, all they have to do is simply click the mouse to finish the whole trading process such as open an account, purchase or redeem funds.
Moreover, ICBC Fund Channel offers information enquiry and online consultancy which are difficult to provide in traditional ways. Investors can have better understanding on Fund products and make more accurate decisions by enjoying these unique services now. To ICBC and Fund Companies, the Fund Channel helps to save counter staff resources considerably.
More staff can now be allocated to offer personalized high-end services to customers. Further, finance advice from ICBC and Fund Companies can be given to millions of investors 24 hours a day and 7 days a week consistently through this channel as service hours and scope are now broadened on a great scale.
From a macro perspective, this move not only signifies that ICBC started to go further in terms of network banking services, but also denotes the full development of sales and services channel of open-end funds in China.
News Background:
ICBC spent ongoing efforts in strengthening banking innovation. E-banking has been put in a strategic position. In recent years, ICBC placed incessant efforts in innovation and promotion of E-banking service and achieved leap-frogging development which make it a leading position among banks in China. It won awards of "World Best Bank Website", "Best Corporate/Institutional Internet Bank in China", "Best Consumer Internet Bank in China " many times from British journal The Bankers and American journal Global Finance. ICBC won the 1st prize in "Internet Banking Evaluation" organized by Hexun.com with an absolute advantage in February this year. Today, ICBC was the first in China to build a multi-channel banking service system covering Business Offices, Internet Banking, Telephone Banking, Mobile Banking and Self-service Terminals. ICBC is now a modal bank in China to demonstrate the success of "Offices + Mouse" implementation. According to internal statistics in terms of business scale, transaction amount of ICBC E-banking jumped rapidly from RMB 3.6 trillion in 2001 to RMB 46.8 trillion in 2005, 25.9% of ICBC whole business. In terms of customer scale, there were over 17 million customers of ICBC Personal Internet Banking and 320,000 of Corporate Internet Banking by the end of March 2006. In terms of website hits, daily traffic of ICBC Portal is more than 3 million. In the ranking given by Alexa, an international authoritative organization monitoring the traffic of websites, ICBC was the 349th, No.2 of all banking websites globally.
ICBC launched Online Fund Service in 2003. In recent years of efforts, it encompassed all functions such as Account Opening, Subscription, Purchase, Redemption, Conversion and Enquiry. Trading volume of online funds showed rapid growth during this period, according to internal statistics with RMB 90 million in 2003, RMB 1.
6 billion in 2004 and RMB 8.45 billion in 2005. Average growth rate was 848%. In 2006, growth of ICBC Online Fund continued to soar. The trading volume of online fund was RMB 3.89 billion in the first quarter of 2006, which is a 192% increase compared to volume in the same period last year.
