ICBC sits atop of the league table by capturing over 60% of all patents in China banking sector, to 178 state patents as of today. ICBC received 48 new state patents just in the year 2011. Industry insiders said the number of patents is an important index to measure the independent innovation capability of a company. The ICBC's patent dominance demonstrates its leading innovation capability among all banks in China.

Worthy of note is that, these innovations were quickly turned to applications to serve the customers which was a big push to drive the competitive edge and service capability of ICBC, and paved the solid way for the Bank to better serve the economy and society. ICBC had 3,243 products by end-2011. Through the launch of a batch of new products that cater to the financial needs of the customers, ICBC products cover all business areas in capital markets, monetary markets and insurance markets. Today in China's financial market, ICBC is the financial institution with the widest, most complete range of products and the strongest service capability. With 1,354 new products and services on the pipeline at present, ICBC maintains its momentum to supply innovative, best-quality financial products to all.

In recent years, guided by unwavering strategy of independent innovation, ICBC continues to expand its service innovation and turns innovations into applications, backed by state-of-the-art system to ensure customized delivery, said an executive with the Bank. ICBC has a team of 13,000 IT employees, the strongest and most professional team among all commercial banks as of today. ICBC also sets up the largest software development center in China with nearly 5,000 IT staff working on software development. Through continuous innovation on information technology and business, nearly a thousand innovative ICBC business applications are put into production every year. They represent new service platforms or knock-out products that reach across different business segments - customer services, global market, bank card, electronic banking, and provide strong support for ICBC to improve services, speed up reform, go international and strengthen risk management.