HONG KONG — Jilin Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank Corporation Limited is pleased to announce its annual results of the Group and its subsidiaries for the 12 months ended 31, December 2016. The Group’s strategic goal is to expand its footprint across all of China and build a leading modern PRC rural commercial banking group with strong brand value.
In 2016, Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank experienced rapid growth in both scale of operations and financial performance.This growth is largely attributable to the Group’s success in executing its business strategies, excellent geographic location, business innovation, efficient operations and management capabilities. The Group’s performance not only delivered sound returns to the Shareholders and investors, but also laid a solid foundation for its sustainable development. During the Reporting Period, the Group’s total assets amounted to RMB191,471.3 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 34.9%. The Group recorded a total operating income of RMB5,954.1 million, representing an increase of 39.5% as compared to 2015. The Group’s net profit increased by 65.2% from RMB1,402.2 million in 2015 to RMB2,315.8 million in 2016. The Group’s earings per share is RMB0.57, representing an increase of 39%. The Group’s total loans and advances to customers amounted to RMB60,286.4 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 29.7%; total deposits from customers amounted to RMB127,408.7 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 36.6%; the non-performing loan ratio remained low at 1.41%. The Group will distribute a cash dividend of RMB0.3 (tax inclusive) for each share, RMB1,195,439,307.6 in total (tax inclusive) for the year ended December 31, 2016.
As of December 31, 2016, the Group had an aggregate of 395 outlets, of which 120 outlets were operated by the Group and the rest by the Group’s subsidiary banks under their own names. The Group has gradually shifted the focus of its outlet operations from providing traditional banking services to providing comprehensive financial services. The Group was the first rural commercial bank in China and first financial institution in Jilin province to provide robot bank lobby managers and 3-D printing, and was also the first financial institution in Jilin’s rural credit bank system to offer 24-hour automatic banking and automatic safe deposit boxes and remote video self-service loan application machines. Meanwhile, The Group provides convenient banking services to customers at lower operation costs by using Self-service banking, Telephone and SMS banking, Internet banking, Mobile phone banking, WeChat banking and Remote video banking.
Corporate Banking Business Encouraged the Growth of SMEs
During the Reporting Period, the Group’s corporate banking business accounted for 37.1% of total operating income, representing a year-on-year increase of 4.9%. Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank had approximately 2,061 corporate borrowers with loans totaling RMB45,304.5 million, accounting for 73.0% of the Group’s total loans and advances to customers. the Group’s corporate deposits totalled RMB58,557.0 million, accounting for 46.0% of total customer deposits. The Group’s sales of wealth management products to corporate customers totaled RMB25,833.1 million.
The Group seeks to grow with its corporate customers, especially SMEs with strong growth potential, and the Group focuses on developing long-term customer relationships. As of December 31, 2016, the Group had 2,027 SME customers with loans totaling RMB41,481.1 million. In 2015, the Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank was recognized as a “Pioneer Institution in the China Banking Industry for Providing Financial Services to Small and Micro Enterprises” by CBRC.
What’s more, the Group also collaborates with other financial institutions, such as securities companies, fund companies, trust companies, insurance companies, private equity funds and financial leasing companies, to provide one-stop financial services to corporate customers.
Specialized Retail Banking Provided Comprehensive Financial Services
During the Reporting Period, the operating income from the Group’s retail banking business amounted to RMB2,013.8 million, accounting for 33.8% of total operating income. The Group had over 89,631 retail borrowers with total loans and advances to customers of RMB16,786.3 million, accounting for 27.0% of total loans and advances to customers. The Group’s retail deposits totalled RMB65,203.8 million, accounting for 51.2% of total customer deposits.
As of December 31, 2016, the Group had issued approximately 3.5 million debit cards, and Renminbi denominated Union Pay credit cards have been officially issued by Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank from September 2015. The Group also had issued specialized debit cards with added features such as theme cards for different market segments and co-branded cards offering preferential value-added services. The Group has cooperated with Changchun Federation of Trade Unions to offer trade union member cardholders comprehensive financial services, including membership management, subsidies and allowances. In addition, the Group has cooperated with well-known domestic third-party payment companies to develop Internet payment services to enhance cardholder experience.
The Group’s private banking department provides one-stop financial services tailored for individual customers. These products and services primarily include wealth planning and customized wealth management products. During the Reporting Period, the Group’s sales of wealth management products to private banking customers totaled RMB8,371.9 million. Meanwhile, the Group also has provided private banking customers with various value-added services, primarily including priority banking services, one-on-one consultancy services, bank fee discounts, and health consultancy services offered in cooperation with third parties.
Responded to Challenges by Actively Developing Treasury Business
In response to the challenges from the liberalization of interest rates and increasing financial disintermediation in recent years, the Group has been actively developing its treasury business. The Group’s treasury operations consist primarily of money market transactions, investments in securities and other financial assets and treasury operations conducted on behalf of customers. During the Reporting Period, operating income from the Group’s treasury operations was RMB1,579.3 million, accounting for 26.5% of its total operating income.
The Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank was selected as one of the Top 100 Trading Banks in the Interbank RMB Market by the China Foreign Exchange Trade System and National Interbank Funding Center in 2015, and one of the Top 100 Banks in the Interbank RMB and Foreign Exchange Market by the China Foreign Exchange Trade System and National Interbank Funding Center in 2015. In 2016, the Bank was named the “Best Rural Financial Institution in Interbank RMB Market in 2015” by the China Foreign Exchange Trade System and National Interbank Funding Center.
Looking forward, Jiutai Rural Commercial Bank is faced with opportunities and challenges. For the financial institutions in the banking industry of China, the lack of growth momentum in the general economy as well as the state policies aiming to reduce cost and deleverage will result in lower financing needs of enterprises, and prolonged shortage of quality assets, which may adversely affect the ability of banks to mitigate credit risk. However, the overall economic environment of China remains stable and the economic growth rate of China remains reasonable. In Jilin, the GDP growth rate in 2016 reached 6.9%, which was 0.2 percentage point higher than the annual growth rate of the national GDP, and surpassed the national average again since two years before. This shows that Jilin’s economy has bottomed out and promoted to a higher development level.
In terms of regional economy, the government will further promote and implement policies for boost the development of Northeastern China and stimulate a new round of reform and upgrade of industries led by the strategic emerging industry, technology and innovative industry, high-end manufacturing industry and service industry, laying a solid foundation for sustainable development.
In 2017, the Group plans to strategically expand geographically and optimize operating network; reinforce advantages in banking services for the “three rurals” and SMEs; exploit the growth potential of personal financial services to promote the growth of its retail banking business; develop emerging businesses to promote the transformation of the growth model; further strengthen the Group’s risk management and internal control; and attract, develop, retain and motivate high-quality talent. Meanwhile, by fully capitalizing on the regional economic development trend and taking advantage of the opportunities brought by the new policies, new development space and new cooperation platform, the Group will continue to enhance the coordination and synergy of operation with steady growth, aiming to achieve better operating results and explore new growth points through innovation and transformation.