Analysts contended shares of ICBC were of strategic value because of its widespread networks and growing inter-bank revenue.

With more than 18,000 branches, 2.5 million corporate customers and 150 million individual clients, the ICBC accounts for 15.4 percent of all loans extended in China.

Jiang said the ICBC will devote major efforts to develop their e-bank business.

According to Jiang, the ICBC will transfer 40 percent of its business to e-bank in four years to come and it is likely to transfer 70 percent of its banking business to e-bank in 10 years.

ICBC now is the largest e-bank in China. Its daily business volume averages 40 million deals, of which, 30 percent are handled through its e-bank system.

By the end of November, ICBC's e-bank had developed 22.62 million individual clients and 587,000 corporate clients, and its e-banking turnover amounted to 40.8 trillion yuan (5.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first 10 months of this year.

The rapid development of e-banking business has saved ICBC a lot of costs, since the cost per deal of e-bank is only 0.49 yuan, much lower than that of the bank outlet, which averages 3.06 yuan.

In the next three years, ICBC will have 20 million e-banking clients, and future ICBC is likely to be the largest Internet enterprise, Jiang said earlier at another meeting.

The ICBC's goal is to make itself "a bank in your family " rather than "a bank besides you," Jiang said.

1

2

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)