Leading the industry in improving corporate governance and providing advice on high-quality development of listed banks

On October 16, the "2023 China Listed Bank Development Forum and the Third Lecture of the Four Seasons Lecture on Corporate Governance in the Banking Industry" was held in Hangzhou. Experts attending the meeting said that commercial banks, as a bridge between the real economy and the financial market, play a vital role. As a key role in the financial industry, listed banks should actively integrate into the overall situation of economic and social development, and promote national economic development with their professional ability and integrity; Improve the coverage and inclusiveness of financial services through innovative financial products and services, and provide high-quality financial services for enterprises and individuals.

Continuously improve corporate governance

With the rapid development of China's economy, Chinese style modernization and high-quality economic development are imperative. As the leader of the banking industry, the performance of listed banks has attracted much attention.

Reviewing the performance of listed banks in the past year, the Secretary of the Party Committee of the China Banking Association Xing Wei, the full-time vice president, said: "In 2022, listed banks will continue the steady development trend, adhere to the dynamic and balanced development of 'scale, structure, efficiency, quality', promote the organic integration of party leadership and corporate governance, and achieve results in standardizing corporate governance, accelerating business reform, strengthening risk management, and promoting digital transformation. The ability of directors and executives to perform their duties has been improved, corporate governance has been continuously improved, the quality of ESG information disclosure has continued to improve, the scale of assets and liabilities has grown steadily, the structure of assets and liabilities has continued to optimize, the quality of assets has remained stable, and the light transformation has begun to show results. "

Yang Kaisheng, the former president of ICBC, said that listed banks should strive to become the benchmark in all aspects of the industry, and it is undoubtedly an important aspect to set a good example in improving corporate governance. To constantly strengthen and improve the corporate governance of China's banking industry is the need to prevent and resolve financial risks, and plays a positive role in maintaining the stability of the capital market.

Zhang Xianqiu, Deputy Director of the Corporate Governance Supervision Department of the former CBRC, said that currently listed banks need to achieve six "further steps" to strengthen corporate governance: first, further strengthen the leadership and construction of the Party, and continue to promote the organic integration of the leadership of the Party and corporate governance; Second, further standardize the behavior of shareholders; Third, further strengthen the construction of the board of directors; Fourth, further improve the moral standard; Fifth, further strengthen information disclosure; Sixth, we should pay more attention to environmental and social issues.

Optimize and adjust the asset structure

It is the consensus of the experts present that listed banks still face challenges under the economic cycle fluctuations.

"The net interest margin has narrowed, the operating pressure has increased, the asset quality is under pressure, the bank's valuation is low, and it is not easy to supplement external capital." Zhang Rongsen, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Zhejiang Merchants Bank, analyzed how to balance capital, scale, quality, and efficiency, and walk out of the financial development path with Chinese characteristics in the new situation, which is an examination question for the banking industry in the new era.

Zheshang Bank proposed the business strategy of "laying a ballast for weak sensitive assets in the economic cycle", and continued to lead the adjustment of customer structure and income structure by optimizing and adjusting the asset structure. After more than a year of practice, the results began to show. By the end of June 2023, the business cycle weak sensitive assets of Zheshang Bank had achieved a revenue of 9.517 billion yuan, up 26.71% year on year, accounting for 29.58% of the total revenue, up 5.24 percentage points year on year. The proportion of non interest income increased by 1.07 percentage points to 27.86%, and the growth rate of green income reached 47.6%.

Looking into the future, experts said that listed banks still take supporting the real economy as their mission, continue to focus on serving Chinese modernization and promoting high-quality development, seize opportunities, address challenges and achieve new breakthroughs.

key word: corporate governance bank development assets