Recently, the Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank released its 2023 financial report. In 2023, the bank achieved operating income of 26.414 billion yuan, an increase of 3.07% over the previous year, and net profit to mother of 12.142 billion yuan, an increase of 10.64% over the previous year. By the end of 2023, the bank's total assets were 1392.214 billion yuan, up 8.65% from the end of the previous year. Total loans, advances and absorbed deposits increased 6.09% and 7.73% year-on-year respectively, and its scale strength continued to grow steadily.
While profitability and asset size continue to increase, the asset quality and capital adequacy level of the Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank have also remained stable. By the end of 2023, the bank's non-performing loan ratio was 0.97%, and the provision coverage rate was 404.98%. The capital adequacy ratio, Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio, and core Tier 1 capital adequacy ratio were 15.74%, 13.35%, and 13.32% respectively, maintaining a good level in the industry.
Since 2023, the Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank has actively carried out the mission of “inclusive finance to help people live a better life”, anchoring the return of finance to its roots, making every effort to write “five major articles”, cultivate and shape business characteristics in the fields of inclusive finance, science and innovation finance, rural revitalization, pension finance, green finance, Yangtze River Delta integrated development, etc., protect the essence of life with financial honesty, and strive to achieve organic unification of bank commercial values and social functions.
The product system is continuously improved to meet the needs of pension financial services
In October 2023, the Central Financial Work Conference proposed that we should unswervingly follow the path of financial development with Chinese characteristics, promote high-quality financial development in China, and “do a good job in five major articles on technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance”, which clarified five key areas to promote high-quality economic and financial development in an integrated manner, and also anchored the focus of following the path of financial development with Chinese characteristics.
Banks are the main force of financial institutions. For banks, grasping the political and popular nature of financial work, enhancing feelings and political responsibility for financial service, answering the “Five Great Articles” questionnaire with smarter, more professional, and more enthusiastic financial services, and making new contributions to the high-quality development of the real economy is the proper meaning in the title.
In order to better serve regional economic development, the Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank continues to build a “5+3” comprehensive financial service system with trading banks as the engine, deepening customer management, product development, functional iteration, and channel upgrades. By the end of 2023, the bank's loan balance was 452,023 billion yuan, an increase of 11.53% over the end of the previous year. The total number of customers reached 344,300, and the scale of public services continued to expand.
In terms of wealth management, the Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank continues to build a product and service system with diversified customer asset allocation as the core and stable wealth management, enriching the “shelf” of wealth management products, promoting consignment businesses such as financial management, funds, and insurance, and driving effective revenue growth in the wealth business. By the end of 2023, the bank's retail financial assets (AUM) balance was 745.883 billion yuan, up 7.06% from the end of the previous year; the number of individual customers (excluding credit card customers) was 23.246 million, an increase of 10.99% over the end of the previous year; and the number of first-time buyers of wealth products such as financial management, insurance, and non-commodity funds exceeded 70,000.
Pension finance is not only the “infrastructure” for the safe and efficient operation of the pension insurance system, but also a support carrier for the development of old-age services and industries. It is essential to improve the sense of attainment, happiness, and security of the elderly. In response, the Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank focuses on the pension needs of a large basic customer base, strengthening wealth management services characterized by pension finance. In response to the age characteristics of surrounding customer groups, it has launched themed outlets such as pension finance specialty outlets, and launched “Elderly Care Accounts” to create comprehensive, differentiated, and companion financial services centered on diversified asset portfolio allocation as the carrier. By the end of 2023, the number of surrogate pension customers increased by 42,000 compared to the end of the previous year. The number of pension payers increased by 11.76% compared to the end of the previous year. The number of dropshipping pension customers ranked 11.74% in the market share in Shanghai. The number of pension payments made in the same year had an increase of 1.08 percentage points over the previous year, ranking first in the city.
Financial power empowers technological development, and digital transformation progresses smoothly
Technology is the primary productive force. It is an important mission of financial institutions to serve technology enterprises and achieve an effective connection between financial resources and technological resources. From a practical point of view, the development of technology finance is inseparable from unblocking and exploring related business difficulties and blockages. The Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank closely followed the requirements for the construction of the Shanghai Science and Technology Innovation Center and the Science and Technology Innovation Finance Reform Pilot Zone, put forward the “four pillars and eight pillars” development concept of technology finance, complete the first-year goals of the new three-year strategic development with high quality, further improve a sustainable, fully covered, and guaranteed technology finance service system, and write a major article on “Financial Resources Focus on Technological Innovation”.
Specifically, the Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank continues to promote the “Xin Dynamic Energy” strategy to cultivate emerging customers, establish a comprehensive service system with “Five Special Service+Six Dimensional Empowerment” as the core, and work with external professional institutions to build a cooperative ecosystem for science and technology enterprises — “Xin Ecology”, and comprehensively enhance the differentiated service capabilities of “Xin Dongneng” customers. By the end of 2023, the bank's loan balance for technology-based enterprises was 92,516 billion yuan, up 29.92% from the end of the previous year. The number of loan customers was 3,275, an increase of 33.13% over the end of the previous year, of which the number of technology-based SMEs accounted for 97.13%. In 2023, the bank served nearly half of Shanghai's “specialized, special and new 'little giant'” enterprises and about 30% of “specialized, special and new” small and medium-sized enterprises. Loan balances increased by 43.82% and 37.02% respectively from the end of the previous year.
Moreover, the bank is also strengthening product innovation and development, customizing “Xinke Express Loan” online specialty credit products for technology-based enterprises, and launching innovative products such as “Xinlian Loan” and long-term win-win interest business, giving full play to the credit-enhancing role of intellectual property pledge financing. At the end of 2023, the bank's intellectual property pledge financing balance exceeded 2.2 billion yuan, an increase of 169.73% over the end of the previous year.
With the development of Internet technology and the advent of the digital age, digital finance was included in the “Five Major Articles” layout as a matching form of finance, which can not only reduce the threshold and cost of financial services, but also more efficiently support the real economy and serve the development of the digital economy. The Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank is firmly promoting the “Focus+” digital transformation strategy to accelerate the digital transformation of business and system construction. In 2023, the bank's technology investment reached 1,135 billion yuan, an increase of 14.05% over the previous year, accounting for 4.3% of operating income; it has 818 full-time fintech personnel, an increase of 14.4% over the end of the previous year, accounting for 9.15% of the total number of employees.
Focusing on inclusive services for small and micro enterprises, green finance has achieved remarkable results
There are heterogeneous differences in the allocation of financial resources between regions and between urban and rural areas in China. In this context, the concept of “inclusive finance” came into being. Its purpose is to improve the coverage, availability, and satisfaction of financial services, and to provide appropriate and effective financial services to all social strata and groups in need of financial services at an affordable cost.
Since its establishment, the Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank has been actively implementing inclusive finance and empowering social governance, focusing on inclusive entities such as Xiaowei and the “Three Rural Communities”, and making every effort to promote the steady development of the inclusive finance business through the establishment of the “Four Special Classes”. In 2023, the bank's balance of inclusive small and micro loans was 77.928 billion yuan, up 21.55% from the end of the previous year, 50,300 Inclusive loan customers, an increase of 47.51% over the end of the previous year; the balance of agricultural loans was 66.378 billion yuan, and the balance of inclusive agricultural loans was 14.295 billion yuan, a significant increase of 26.28% over the end of the previous year, continuing to maintain the main position in the “three rural” financial services regional market.
Green finance is currently a key direction for high-quality financial development. The Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank comprehensively deepened the construction of a green finance management system, focusing on the five core sectors of green agriculture, green energy, energy saving and environmental protection, green manufacturing, and green construction, providing green finance services around the five major business directions of green credit, green bonds, green services, green financial management, and green leasing. At the end of 2023, the bank's green credit balance was 61,431 billion yuan, an increase of 41.00%, which is significantly higher than the overall credit growth rate during the same period; the green leasing balance reached 10.147 billion yuan, an increase of 45.19% over the previous year.
In terms of products, the bank co-underwrote the first “carbon neutrality/rural revitalization” green medium-term note in Shanghai, successfully implemented the first batch of innovative products such as “water saving benefits” business, CCER pledge credit, and sewage rights mortgages in Shanghai, exploring corporate and individual carbon accounts, and providing financial services in the field of production and distribution for a large number of green agricultural industry clusters such as Nanhui Peach and 8424 Watermelon to meet the diversified green financing needs of the market.
As a commercial bank rooted in Shanghai, the Shanghai Agricultural Commercial Bank practices financial return to its roots, sticks to its original nature, closely revolves around the national and regional development layout, starts from the strategic direction of “five major articles” in the financial field, empowers the high-quality development of the real economy in the region, and continues to add new connotations to Shanghai's construction of a modern industrial system.
Source: Finance Association