By the end of the first quarter, the sci-tech finance loan balance of China's Industrial Bank (CIB) exceeded the RMB 1 trillion mark, serving over 330,000 sci-tech finance clients.
As a domestically systemically important bank, CIB has accelerated its integration into the “technology-industry-finance” virtuous cycle in recent years, positioning sci-tech finance as its “fourth hallmark.” The bank has developed a “1+20+150” management system consisting of 1 sci-tech finance leadership group, 20 key sci-tech finance branches, and 150 sci-tech specialized sub-branches, while continuously improving six major dedicated support systems—ecosystem partnerships, professional research, product services, risk strategies, performance evaluation, and technological support—to comprehensively enhance its sci-tech finance service capabilities, help sci-tech enterprises overcome financing bottlenecks, and drive sci-tech innovation and industrial upgrading.
In terms of product services, CIB has continuously improved its dedicated sci-tech finance product and service system, leveraging its “commercial banking + investment banking” strengths to provide sci-tech enterprises with comprehensive financial support that covers the “entire lifecycle,” “all elements of development,” and “equal emphasis on direct and indirect financing.”
For startups, the bank employs a “technology-driven” credit evaluation method, focusing on assessing enterprises' sci-tech innovation capabilities, and, through products like investment-loan linkage, Xingsu Loan, and high-tech talent entrepreneurship loans, addresses the financing challenges of asset-light startups. For growing enterprises, the bank offers diversified financing products such as R&D loans and industrial plant mortgage loans to meet their needs for expanding production, project construction, and R&D innovation. For mature enterprises, the bank customizes capital operation plans like mergers and acquisitions and IPO advisory services to support resource integration, industrial upgrading, and capital value maximization.
In ecosystem partnerships, CIB fully leverages its role in connecting diverse industries, bringing together stakeholders from “government, industry, academia, research, and finance” to promote deep integration of the “policy chain, innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain.” The bank has successfully connected over 30,000 ecosystem partners, including governments, universities, industrial parks, investment institutions, law firms, associations, and service providers, and has organized over 60 “Together with CIB” themed events, gradually building its brand in the sci-tech finance market.
“We will continue to innovate business models, strengthen service capabilities, and focus on creating long-term value for sci-tech enterprises,” said an executive from CIB's Strategic Client Department.
Notably, on May 7, CIB announced that it had received approval from the National Financial Regulatory Administration to establish Xingyin Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd. (referred to as Xingyin Investment). Xingyin Investment plans to have a registered capital of RMB 10 billion. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of CIB, it is the first financial asset investment company approved for establishment by a national joint-stock commercial bank. The establishment of Xingyin Investment will better serve the development of new productive forces, enable professional and market-driven operations in debt-to-equity swap businesses, reduce corporate leverage ratios, and enhance support for sci-tech innovation enterprises.