On March 27, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) held its 2025 annual results presentation. Looking ahead to the key work plans for 2026, President Liu Jun elaborated on the strategy from the following aspects.

First is the active expansion of integrated services. Liu Jun pointed out that there are absolute standards for world-class financial institutions; they cannot be self-defined. He emphasized that if a bank's balance sheet remains primarily loan-based, it would still be far from achieving world-class status. This requires building a modern financial services industry on the foundation of an indirect financing-dominated balance sheet. Specifically, ICBC must forge its own path in areas related to new quality productive forces and new types of infrastructure. The bank needs to transform from a simple capital intermediary into a comprehensive service provider integrating capital, information, efficiency, and other value elements.

"Finance is the lifeblood of the modern economy. We hope the 'blood' provided by ICBC includes Type A, Type B, and certainly some other special types, and this blood must also be available in sufficient quantity," Liu Jun stated. He noted that it's not only about having sufficient quantity but also possessing the capability to scale up and the ability to extend this volume and service level comprehensively to overseas markets, thereby fully integrating domestic and international markets.

Second is strengthening globally integrated operations. ICBC will leverage its global network advantage and its foundation in integrated domestic and foreign currency operations to upgrade its global resource allocation capability and cross-border financial service capacity. While connecting broader markets and serving larger ecosystems, the bank will cultivate endogenous drivers for high-quality financial development. This particularly involves upgrading products and services centered around the internationalization of the Renminbi (RMB), improving the comprehensive service system encompassing RMB pricing, trading, settlement, clearing, investment, financing, repos, and asset management. Efforts will focus on achieving breakthroughs in key areas like cross-border finance and offshore finance, extending ICBC's advantage in RMB transaction pricing from the domestic to the international sphere, and helping enhance the RMB's influence in international pricing.

Liu Jun emphasized, "If we discuss the internationalization strategy of Chinese financial institutions now, the theme of that strategy must be the internationalization of the RMB. As the largest market maker in China's interbank market, ICBC has an unshirkable responsibility to act as the main force in the next phase of RMB internationalization and the vanguard in the next wave of internationalization for Chinese financial institutions."

Third is continuously enhancing digital momentum. ICBC has established a series of centralized systems and continues to iterate and upgrade them, achieving full coverage, comprehensiveness, and diversity in business support. Furthermore, ICBC will integrate relevant advanced technologies into its operational processes, with market validation of these systems being a prerequisite.

"2026 will be another challenging operational year. Based on the relatively strong development performance in 2024 and 2025, ICBC is confident in consistently delivering results that are diversified, integrated, and representative of the development direction of world-class financial institutions," Liu Jun concluded.