Recently, ICBC has established a tier-one department, the Green Finance Business Department, under Zhejiang Branch. This department is responsible for guiding the development planning and mechanism building, product and process innovation, marketing management, risk management and team building of green finance business in Zhejiang Province. As of the end of June 2023, Zhejiang Branch reported a balance of over RMB380 billion in green loans. The increase was over RMB120 billion higher than that in the beginning of the year, and over RMB250 billion higher than that in October 2021. The growth rate of green loans was 35.1 percentage points higher than that of corporate loans in the same period. Since its establishment, Zhejiang Branch has deeply followed the ecological civilization development concept that “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. It has taken multiple measures to drive the high-quality development of green finance in Zhejiang Province.

ICBC has established the only Head-Office-level green finance demonstration branch (Huzhou) in Huzhou and Quzhou, two of the first batch of green finance reform pilot areas in China, in a bid to speed up the research and application of green financial innovation products. The branch launched Lucid Water and Green Mountain Loans, Forestry Carbon Sink Loans, Mortgage Loans based on the Pledge of Sewage Rights, Water-saving Loans, and other innovative green financial products. Since its establishment, the branch has granted more than RMB25.2 billion in innovative products.

Actively developing “zero-carbon” outlets. ICBC has selected the Banking Department of Lishui Branch, Shuanglin Sub-branch in Nanxun, Huzhou and other institutions as pilot “zero-carbon outlets”. These outlets have consumed “zero-carbon” energy by purchasing carbon sink indexes, installing rooftop distributed photovoltaic power generation devices and other means. In 2022, the Banking Department of Lishui Branch was selected among the first batch of “Zero-Carbon Financial Outlet” in Lishui City by the local regulator.

Exploring taking corporate ESG performance as an important base for credit ratings. In Huzhou and Quzhou, ICBC introduces the environment, energy consumption, carbon emission and other data pushed by the external ESG rating management system and government departments to establish an ESG risk assessment index system, and takes the ESG rating results as an important reference for the Bank’s traditional rating and credit system. The Bank adopts inter-combination and cross-validation to forestall and resolve ESG risks from customers.