Bank of China Limited (3988) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[indiscernible] investors and media colleague. Good afternoon. I'm [indiscernible] the host of www.t5w.net. The orders to build communication bridges with investors and the bridge of listed companies and it promotes listed companies to strengthen the Investor Relations management and help investors better understand the listed companies. China Securities Investment Service Center has been organizing a series of activities to help investors to understand finance listed companies, the first edition of activities is guided by the Investor Protection Bureau of CSRC and is co-organized by the Beijing Securities Regulatory Bureau. We connect to investors, financial institutions and also journalists. Today's event is about Bank of China. This is also BOC's small medium sized investors event. And the Bank of China is the longest ongoing bank in China as is the most globalized and integrated bank in China. And -- it was the first of our [indiscernible] Hong Kong stock market and also Shanghai stock market in 2006, becoming the first bank in China, listed in both markets. It is also the only bank stores of both Olympics in China. It has been selected as the global systematic claim for the bank for 11 consecutive years, its international setters, competitiveness and comprehensive strengths have been ranked among the top among large banks in the world. As mentioned in this video, Bank of China as a centrally owned company with a long history has been following [indiscernible] serving the company by providing financial services and moving forward towards perseverance witnessing historical process of the great recognition of the Chinese nation accumulating rich legacy and try to add [indiscernible] valuable inspiration. Bank of China has celebrated its 110th anniversary. It will carry forward the spirit of the past 100 years continue to serve the real economy and then needs people's aspirations for a better life, strive to achieve high-quality development and create better business performance and greater social value. Next, please allow me to introduce the management from BOC. Vice President of the Bank of China, [indiscernible]; General Manager of finance Department [indiscernible]; General Manager of Personal Digital Financial [indiscernible]. Mr. Yuki General Manager of the Board Secretary Department. General Manager, [indiscernible]. Senior Manager of Credit Management [indiscernible]. Next, we will enter the next session. To help you understand the listed companies more derivatively and comprehensively and encourage rational investment, value-based investments and long-term investments, now we're going to ask the Vice President to Lin Jingzhen to share Bank of China's situation in terms of its wealth management although there's wealth [indiscernible] financial development. Now the floor is yours.

Distinguished colleague from China Securities Investors Service Center, dear investors, dear journalists, good afternoon. I am the Vice President of Bank of China. My name is Lin Jingzhen, and I'm very happy to see all of you today so that we can brief you about Bank of China's business operation as well as the development in terms of the finance of wealth management. In 2022, Bank of China celebrated its 110th anniversary. As the longest, continuous operating bank in China, Bank of China has long insisted on opening up and developing its businesses. Right now, Bank of China has become the most globalized international banking group in China. In the new journey of building a modern socialist country, Bank of China, will rather would say implement, discussions and the strategies of the CPC Central Committee as the State Council, follow the general strategy of the seeking progress while maintaining stability, continuous enhanced flexibility, universality and competitiveness of the financial services, making steady progress in financial performance, promote business development to the next level and strengthen the foundation for future development. The bank has been solidly promoting the implementation of the group's 14th 5-year plan, focusing on 8 financial areas, and supporting the development of the world economy with multiple measures. It has been continuously promoting the strategy of One Body, Two Wings deeply integrated into the new development pattern of dual circulation of the country, advantage of transformation and continue to work on operational efficiency, balance development and safety and improve comprehensive risk management capabilities. Within the backdrop of steady operating results improvement, we fully grasp the opportunity of the wealth finance development. We have been effectively implementing the group supported by their plan in terms of a wealth finance and follow the mandate of finance for the people, promote product and service innovation and has achieved good results in wealth finance business. Our customer base has been growing, market share of retail business has increased. The growth rate of the medium and high-end customers were significantly higher than that of ordinary customers. And investment in the wealth management customer base are increasing as well. The scale of financial assets under management steadily expanded market share of RMB personal deposits and investment, financial assets ranked first in the comparable industry. The growth rate of the financial assets of target banking clients ranked second in the comparable industry. Wealth management income developed steadily and businesses such as funds, wealth management, insurance, precious metals maintained positive development momentum, driving the personal finance business to become the best of the revenue contributor. To be more specific, we are pushing well-financed business in the following aspects. First, to expand the coverage of the wealth finance so as to benefit a wider range of people. We always believe that financial work is with critical nature and also it's for the people, we uphold the customer-centric service concept, help achieve common prosperity, enhance the sense of access and happiness of our customers, accelerate the development of inclusive financial products. We have introduced inclusive insurance, new customer wealth management products, savings for old age and other low threshold products. We organized activities, for example, fixed income plus and also 90% discount for personal pension fees, fully canceled annual fee for debit card and a small amount management fee and a further reduced investment management fees as well. To further reduce the threshold of investment with financial services and improve the quality and efficiency of our long-term customer services, we continue to improve our multi-channel service systems with mobile banking as the new channel, including also micro banking, SMS banking and interactive boards with the new 8.0 version of a micro banking launched at the end of last year has upgraded asset management services as was soon launched and in wealth and rollout view wealth shopping cards, et cetera. The purpose is to help customers manage their wallets efficiently. While in terms of the digitization, we have accelerated intelligence upgrading, enriched customer profiles based on big data, accurately match customer demand and provide tailor-made services to customers within a marketing approach. At the same time, empowered by application scenarios, we will continue to promote conversion from traffic to customer acquisition and the product sales. Second, we have been deepening the development of wealth finance and provide more professional services. With better value management for customers in mind, we have been effectively enhancing the market competitiveness and advance reputation of our wealth finance and accelerate the realization of winning results for both customers and for the bank. We optimize product management and strengthen our basic capabilities. While Phase 1 customers' perspectives, build a group-wide or market-wide open wealth management product portfolio. The number of partner companies have reached 10. And maintaining a leading position in the industry, we have established a sound product selection, tracking and evaluations and dynamic adjustment mechanisms upgrade the Bank of China selection trend of public funds and upgrade the Bank of China selection. In 2022, the average yield of the new established hybrid platform hosted by Bank of China ranked first in the industry. We've been optimizing asset allocation and enhancing expense capabilities. We have been tapping into our resources to improve the performance of allocating different types of products. And also, to balance this spend build to manage expectations on the side of customers, and we've been improving diagnosis as well as the different types of our business modules, providing more intelligent asset analysis and services to our customers, we've been always there for customers and to maintain good investor relationship instead of spending single products right now, before, during and after sales, we are involved in the whole journey to provide services to customers. We also have been building platforms and online ecosystem for our products as well as we're working with over 30 external partners. In 2022, we published more than 10,000 articles. And thirdly, we've been trying to elevate the development of wealth finance and provide some good diversified [indiscernible]. Starting from our heritage and our rich resources, we consider private banking business as different tier areas for us to implement the One Body with Two Wings strategy. We've been promoting globalized integrated development of wealth finance. We've been focusing our globalized development, tapping into our advantages in terms of having both domestic and overseas markets, being a commercial bank and investment bank. We've been accelerating the building of a post-banking platform in Asia Pacific region and building domestic, overseas, and regular business and linkage mechanism. Global asset allocation offshores [indiscernible], therefore new stock ownership plans are highlights of our services. We try to further improve quality services for our retail customers, focusing on comprehensive developments last year, when we celebrated the 15th anniversary of our product banking business. We launched, the first entrepreneur office of the industry. Last year, filtering on the demand of individuals, households enterprises and our society, pulling resources of the whole group to establish a flexible working group, providing a very comprehensive set of services, including both planning, global asset allocation, heritage planning, business operations, global investment financing, the Board of activities and responsible investment for us to maximize funds for our customers. Fourth is to further expense the breadth of our wealth finance trying to come up with a more solid foundation for the business. We focus very much on the foundation, trying to make the foundation as stable and as solid as possible so that we can have the sustained development of the business. We've been trying to improve efficiency of the channel team and also expanding the construction of outlet as well as creating private banking departments, private banking centers so as to have our own network of the services. We follow the principle that talent is the #1 resource, and we've been boarding talent pools in terms of wealth management, private banker as well as the investment consulting services. We intend to build a team of cross-disciplinary and digital talents that are good at technologies, businesses and analysis, and we have effectively enhanced the talent training and the technological impairments of those talents. We've also promoted this system upgrade and development based on the whole bank enterprise level, architecture development, and the focus on the channels, products, marketing, operations, data and risk management. We have reduced the barriers and taken integrated approach to build a capacity support platform. We have practiced a comprehensive risk management in terms of operational risk, consumer protection, customer information protection and so compliance. We have enhanced our management, and security has been an important aspect of all the links and the processes in wealth finance. Dear friends, thanks to the rapid development of China's economy over the past few decades. China's per capita GDP has continued to rise. And by 2022, the overall per capita -- the overall GDP has exceeded USD 1.27 trillion. At the same time, among all the total resident assets,, the proportion of non-financial assets typically, the real estate has been declining and there is huge potential to improve the financial assets. So we see the reform of the capital markets, more regulated the financial regulation and upgrading of the Fintech. We believe that the tipping point for the growth of retail business has come. And in particular, the wealth finance business has great prospects and a bright feature. So as the next step, the Bank of China will leverage our percentages, since the turn of the time, and we will follow the guidelines from the government, and we'll remain committed to our intention to source the customer and to build ourselves into a leading financial service bank focused on wealth finance, cross-border finance and the consumer finance. We would like to thank all the customers for their long-term acknowledgment and their trust for us. And we would like to invite more friends to follow the development of BOC and to support the innovative transformation of our retail business. We welcome more friends to become our individual clients and to experience our customers' products and services. And the Bank of China is ready to join hands with the shareholders and customers to move towards the goal of common prosperity. Thank you.

Thank you, President Lin, for your presentation. Now please move on to the U-shape table.

Now let's move on to the Q&A session. So first, from question time for individual investors. Now we will invite the individual investors.

So could you brief us on BOC's plans for individual pension business? And what's the advantage of BOC's pension products compared with peer institutions?

Thank you. Now I'd like to invite Deputy General Manager, one for you from the personal Digital Finance Department, to answer your question.

Thank you for your question. To fully implement the state ownders of dosing the third pillar of the patients and to actively responded to the demographic change of China to meet the commerical development that you need ended opening to a diversified costumers of the people, our DOC has introduced speed personal pension business by the end of 2022 and the mobile banking and counter services customers can open accounts, pay account fees and by products. And we have upgraded the mobilecom services to cater for the old peoples' need. And in 2021, we have introduced the dedicated version for old age clients so as to improve the sense of [indiscernible] and sense of security for old age group. This is within the market competition. BOC has remained committed to our digital commitment to promote the personal pension fund business. And we have further built a comprehensive service system. First to improve our product shelf, we have closely followed the updated catalog is introduced by the regulators on the product manager and the qualified products so as to expand our cooperation coverage. We have also improved the dedicated assets allocation plans so as to make sure that the assets will maintain a balanced growth o value. And second, we will improve the function experience. We have improved the purchase procedures and have opened our special features on the mobile phone to improve the customers experience. And third, to provide services across the whole process. So based on our digital mining tools and asset allocation capabilities, we have provided a whole life cycle wealth management fund for the old age clients. And number four, to have good participation, we fully leveraged mobile banking and reach the public account to improve people's understanding of the third pillar and to improve market acceptance for us to improve investor education. So guided by clear planning and consistent efforts of the whole bank, BOC's personal banking, our personal pension business has formed a competitive advantage. First, a richer product shop. In terms of the savings product, we have introduced a long-term time deposits, the installment savings, the demand deposits and the time demand deposits and the dedicated lump sum time deposit for old age insurance. We have a richer product type and the durations. And in terms of the investment-type products, we have launched 103 individual pension public funds and 4 individual pension insurance products, which is leading in the industry. And second, more favorable pricing in terms of the savings product, we have offered a favorable rate for the lump sum time deposit installment savings, demand deposit and time demand deposits and also lower starting amounts. The demand deposit rate was 0.4% which is 1.6x that of the official rate. And in terms of the investment products, we have offered a 90% discount for the subscription fees for all the individual pension public funds products so that people can benefit. And third, for professional services, we have fully leveraged our asset management capabilities and the service resource integration advantages in finance -- in wealth finance. We have a professional standardized and systemic product selection backing in the evaluation mechanism so as to provide reasonable asset allocation plans for different clients with different age group and different risk preference. And here, we would like to invite the investors and the media friends both on-site and online to experience the personal pension products and services offered by Bank of China and to share with us invaluable suggestions so that we can further improve our customer experience, so that the individual pension products and services unit becomes an experience for you. Thank you.

Mr. Wang and I would like to thank the investors for the questions. And the next question is from an individual investor, please.

We have seen continued interest rate hikes of the federal reserve in 2022, and this will contribute positively to BOC's offshore NIM. So could you share with us the revenue performance and impact.

I would like to invite the senior manager, Jianguang Wu from finance management department to answer this question.

Thank you for your questions. In 2022, while supporting the real economy, we have maintained a steady NIM. And over the whole industry, the NIM has been declining, so this is hard on results, and this is mainly due to two factors. First, we have taken initiatives to effectively control the RMB -- our liability cost. We have speak to the principle of both good price and quantity. And the decline of the demand deposit has been limited, and we have reduced the cost -- the high cost -- existing high cost of our liabilities. And to some extent, it has offset some of the negative impact. And second, we have taken the initiative to see the favorable opportunities offered by interest hikes by the federal reserve to optimize the foreign currency asset structure. We have made more effective and improved the proportion of the foreign currency-denominated interest-bearing assets. And in 2023, we think we face a lot of pressure. First is that on the RMB NIM is a downward pressure. For example, LTI has been cut down strictly, for example, the 5-year LTI has been down by 35 basis points. And in 2023, there will be a repricing. And also the new -- the loans, the interest rate for the new loans will also continue to be lower. And second, because the interest terms on the federal reserves will be weaker and the positive contribution of the foreign currency interest spread will become weaker in our contribution. So we'll continue to have a good price and quantity and optimize the liability structure and to better serve the customers to extend the source of our funding. And second, we will adjust our asset structure, especially to have mid-to-long-term loans, we will also use the opportunities offered by the interest hikes by the federal reserve and improve the structure of the foreign currency interest swap when compared with the peers, because of the different currencies. Would you like to add?

Okay, I'll recap. In terms with the peers, because we had different foreign currency liabilities, we believe that we will have less pressure in terms of the narrowing mills compared with other peers.

Thank you for your answer, and I would like to thank you this investor for the question. And the next question comes from an individual investor.

My question is how do you see the overall quality of the assets? In particular, can you talk about the overseas and domestic operational risks and development pressures on asset quality?

Okay. I would like to ask Deputy Chairman, [indiscernible] from the Credit Management Department to answer this question.

Thank you for your questions. As the government continues to implement the policies to stabilize the economy and BOC continue to enhance the quality of our assets in 2022, the overall asset quality has remained stable, which has made a solid foundation for this year. So for the domestic economy, as the policies to stabilize the economy continues to be rolled out, we expect the domestic economy to improve better. However, we still face triple pressure and this will have an impact on the economic operations and the risks in the real estate sector still exist. And we believe that we need to pay attention to the following 3 aspects. First, it still takes time for the real estate policies to take effect and some high leverage developers still have a lot of risk. And second, because the real estate market has cooled down and because of the pandemic, the government's revenues have declined and there has been more expenses. We have to pay attention to the local government businesses, particularly those with weak fiscal capabilities and high liabilities. And also because of geographical issues and also rising commodity prices as well as the financial measures taken in U.S. and the European countries. So now we're entering into a new cycle, especially after COVID-19, that has been a challenge in terms of asset quality of our overseas business. And lastly, because of the industrial chain shifting. In terms of performing trade, we still have to pay attention to risk in this regard. Looking into 2023, the optimization of COVID countermeasure will boost the consumer confidence and to encourage consumption recovery as well as positive real estate policies are coming out, and this success will lead to a recovery of the industry. And in terms of new infrastructure, new energy, China will continue to take measures. On this basis, for Bank of China, we will continue to be proactive in presenting major financial risks. We will follow high-quality business development and the risk prevention and management, especially in certain areas we need to screen this for us to identify the risks early and also detect the problems early so that the problems can be handled. These are the principles, and we need to take early actions making sure that our asset quality will be receivable for the whole year.

Thank you, Ms. [indiscernible] and also I want to thank the investors for the question. So we have a lot of investors joining us through telephone. Next, I would like to invite one investor to ask a question through telephone.

Firstly, dividend yield of BOC is pretty good. So we want to understand, first of all, if this can be maintained in the future? And second, are there any plans to further improve the preference in the future?

Thank you. Let me invite, [indiscernible], Deputy General Manager of the Assets and Liability Management Department.

First of all, thank you for your question. I believe that a lot of investors also have this question as well in recent years. Bank of China has a closely focused on the requirements of the 14th Five-Year Plan and also made overall clients in different areas, we have achieved a steady progress in terms of profit growth and the shareholder return. In 2021, cash dividends to investors was about RMB 2.21 per share before tax. For the whole year of 2022, the average transaction size of A&HC shares, we're talking about 7% and 8.9% in terms of the dividend yield. So either for institutional investors or retail investors, which is still quite attractive, stable and reliable investment returns. In terms of the governance ratio, last year, the bank's total dividend payout ratio was about -- or other payout was about RMB 65.06 and the payout ratio was above 30%. It has been since stable for several years. In the future, still centering around the bank's, which implies the current as well as our capital funding objectives, we will consider different elements. For example, shareholders' returns and then business development needs regulatory requirements and some level of dividends paid by our peers so as to reasonably set the target in terms of annual dividend policy. At present, there is no plan to adjust the dividend's rate.

Thank you for your answer. And also thank you for our 4 individual investors for your questions. I also want to thank the leaders for the explanation. Next from institutional investors.

I have a question. First of all, with the overall economy recovery, we wonder what would be major sources of processing improvement for BOC? Another thing is that we know that Bank of China is the most internationalized the bank in China. So what is the contribution of your overseas business to the profitability of the bank?

Thank you. Let me invite [indiscernible] from Financial Asset Management Department.

First of all, thank you for your question. We think that banking sector and severe economy depends on each other. Economics recovery needs support from the banking sector, but also the financial performance and the business operation of banks will benefit from better macroeconomic performance so that banks can have persistent healthy growth. And this has thanks to better serve the economy. So in terms of providing more for the real economy, we definitely will do that. But at the same time, we want to maintain our stable business performance. There are several aspects. First of all, I want to maintain stable of our net interest income. Net interest income accounts for more than 70% of our own revenue. So this is a [indiscernible] In 2023, we are continuing to implement measures to reduce cost. But also at the same time we will provide financial support for their economy so that we make sure that we can have a stable net interest income. At the same time, centering on the 8 financial areas, we will invest more in different areas to improve the percentage of the loans, especially in medium to long-term loans, and also, we will try to make sure we do a good job in terms of deposits. Next aspect, we want to stabilize the fees and the commission income last year because of the financial and capital markets, this part didn't perform very well for the bank. But this year with the economy recovers, we estimate that the capital markets will develop better. And also recently, the economy is picking up the speed of recovery. Consumer consumption, cross-border exchanges, et cetera, are recovering. So that is the foundation for further improved fees and commission. In terms of the settlement businesses and also domestic and overseas financial investments services, looking into the future, we will look at the market and then solidify our business foundation to tap into our percentages so as to improve our fees and commission income. And the third aspect, because we will try to keep the good momentum of business recovery overseas market in 2022, we can say that the profitability of overseas branches bottomed out and the contribution to the whole group has been improving. Our overseas subsidiaries income in terms of the site already right now is better than the fourth COVID-19. So that is the good news. In 2023, even though there are still a lot of challenges in terms of the macro economic environment, we will tap into our global business as a resource to optimize our layout in overseas. So we have targeted strategies for different branches and to seek opportunities, and we try to maintain the good momentum of recovery for overseas branches. Thank you.

Next, another question ask here from phone call.

Thank you. I had one question, about wealth finance. Currently, wealth finance is a new track in imprudent business competitiveness. But right now, the competition is quite fierce. So I wonder how do you consider your relative advantage in this regard? And my second question is how your wealth finance can purchase the requirement of common prosperity but also ensure high quality development of your own business?

I mentioned before about the overall situation of our wealth finance. Considering your questions, I will answer your questions. We're 110 years old. And in the past years, we've been always considering as our responsibility in terms of supporting the grant rejuvenation of the nation, social progress and the development of the country. We have a community -- so much experience after years of business operation. That is the competitive advantage of our wealth finance business. First of all, our brand reputation. As the first China-based commercial bank, which sets product banking business, obviously we have accumulated a lot of resources in terms of customer base and also business experience as for as our brand is recognized by customers. Second, we can offer professional products and services. We've been accelerating the building of open platform with the efforts from the whole group and also resources from all different markets. And we have the highest number of partner companies for the business. We have a tier professional teams and also very comprehensive investment advisory services. So with that we can further improve our businesses to customers. We can offer very professional market judgment and also asset allocation services. Third is our quite unique One Body, Two Wings strategically out. In terms of a globalization and integrated development, Bank of China started early. We have very broad network of businesses. So we do have our cross-border and also license-related advantages, which enables us to provide one-stop very comprehensive financial services to customers. For example, we've been following the principle of conducting private banking business by the group, accelerating the loading of Asia Pacific private banking platform, trying to serve entrepreneurs and other high net worth individuals. So this is from our side in terms of providing comprehensive services to individual, households, enterprises, et cetera. We will start from our comparative advantages are also guided by the strategy of common prosperity so as to promote high-quality development of wealth finance. First of all, we want to focus on product selection, making sure that wealth finance will be inclusive. We want to think from buyers' perspective by enriching the portfolio of products available. We want to provide as many products available as possible and to make sure that our product pool is competitive. And secondly, we want to integrate the concept of public interest into our products. For example, we've been quite innovative in launching the so-called agency products with the nature of public interest. And second, if we want to highlight asset allocation and improve professional capability in terms of wealth finance, making sure that this is not just a sold as a single product, this is part of the asset allocation portfolio. We also want to provide, for example, smart asset diagnosis and asset allocation services, making sure that we can help our customers to diversify this but also improve their yields. Firstly, we want to be there for our customers throughout the journey. We want to elevate our services. We are building a differentiated teams refined with the wealth management managers, private bankers and also investment advisers. And also, we are focusing on the whole process service, from the very beginning to the very end to encourage customers to have a long-term investment concept. So before, during, after the whole sales process will be served by our colleagues. And of course, is to start with the advantage of resource of the whole group. To solidify our advantage in this business, we want to tap into our advantages of being [indiscernible] and quite integrated company and to pick up the speed of product innovation and to optimize our service model so as to provide integrated services.

Thank you very much, Mr. Lin for your fantastic response. And also want to thank our investors for the questions. Next would be questions from the press.

I'm with China Securities, [indiscernible]. My question is that recently, China has launched a lot of process for policies supporting cost by the e-commerce and also financial services for foreign trade as well as the development of the Greater Bay Area. But of course, in terms of supporting overseas financial business of banks, cross-border finance is strong for BOC, and I just want to understand what is the plan for the next step.

Can I invite [indiscernible] General Manager of the Transaction Department -- Transaction Banking Department to answer the question.

Thank you for your question. Over the years, Bank of China has been tapping into our advantage in cross-border financial services starting the country in becoming -- further opened up country. First of all, we want to have a rich portfolio of products. And over the years, we have launched our financial service plans, and we're absolutely #1 in terms of the cross-border settlement. And also, our support for important export trade has been rising. And at the end of last year, we've seen a guidance for MOFCOM, we have organized a series of activities. All together 150 events were organized, costing of 33,000 foreign trade enterprises. Also, we've been upgrading the financial service plan for enterprises to get orders. By the end of January this year, we have served [ 7016 ] . And secondly, we have come up with the multiple measures to further innovate our digital products. We have introduced the BOC cross-border e-commerce Connect and the BOC cross-border procurement connect and other products to facilitate the cross-border settlement of the new mode of cross-border foreign trade. In 2022, the total size of these businesses exceeded RMB 280 billion, up by 90%. And we have also introduced the overseas transfer express products, and there are over 40,000 new customers and with the business reaching over USD 100 billion. And also, we have taken the initiatives and taking the advantage to build a high ground for opening up. We have quickly followed the national policies to provide policy and financing and the intellectual support for the future results and future report development. We have also served the GBA area, the Yangtze River Delta Area and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Area and has closely followed and see the opportunities for the RCEP implementation and leverage the internationalized advantage of BOC to improve mechanisms, strengthen coordination and become a leader in cross-border finance. As the next step -- as the main venue for providing financial services for foreign trade in China, we will continue to fully leverage our globalized operational advantage and professional advantage in foreign exchange and foreign trade to further provide more financial support for foreign trade to take our responsibility as a major statement bank and to further enhance our traditional advantage in cross-border finance, achieve our high quality development at the same time.

Another the question the press. I'm [indiscernible] China Securities. My question is, so with the development of the digital -- mobile digitalization, mobile banking has become an important channel for the banks to serve the customers. Recently, we know that our BOC has launched the mobile banking 8.0 version. So what are the unique advantages of this new version? And how do you plan to further serve the customers and entire businesses through digitalizing the retail business?

I would invite [indiscernible] Deputy Manager of Personnel Division of Finance Department to answer this question.

Thank you for your question. So the newly released 8.0 version of mobile banking has equally implemented the concept of really serving the people providing convenient services and better benefits to the people. And this is a new type of mobile banking business known, so that is comprehensive shared and value-creating, first enhance the customer coverage. For example, we have provided ethnic language services for the ethnic minorities and the rural version of the app for county users and also dedicated services for the newly registered urbanized things and old age users. And second, we have provided more professional services. For example, better product pools, the wealth management shopping cards and the family wealth panorama view as well as the upgraded asset diagnosis and reporting services. We have also introduced over 30 financial institutions to provide core process investment services before doing and after the investments, so that the customers can take care of their wallet. And taking the release of the new version as a starting point, we'll continue to promote the user transformation of the retail business and to empower the business better with technology. First, we will build a consolidated and integrated channel system. We will improve the mobile banking functions to build a growth system from users, and we will use the diversified channels, for example, the re-banking and the large outbound calls. And second, we have built an agile and customized product service. We improved the customer and product label system and provide customized services for the users. And third, we have built a whole process close looped marketing system. We keep insights into customers' needs. We have improved the customer profile and have achieved targeted realtime and personalized marketing. And of course, we have built a smart and effective risk control system. We have improved the cyber defense system based on more monitoring themes and updated [indiscernible] machine learning model for us to better protect the security of the funds of the customers.

And now questions from the presentations from the Investor Service Center.

My question is around the retail investors. So based on their unique features, how does BOC support these investors? And what are some of the good practices in terms of investor interactions?

I would like to invite [indiscernible] general Manager from the Board, Secretariat to answer this question.

Thank you for your question. BOC is China's first bank to have both listed in the A and H share market. We have over 600,000 shareholders. Most of whom are retail investors. Therefore, retail investors are important supporting source of our business, and we are grateful to your support and all your suggestions and all your interest and rights will be fully respected. First, in terms of guaranteeing the participation right. BOC will have different forms of shareholder meetings. For example, outside meeting and online voting so that the retail shareholders can exercise their decision power. And also, we have organized the experts to answer questions for the retail investors. And also, when announcing our results, we will solicit questions from the retail investors. Before the meeting and during the meeting, we will provide a lot of different opportunities to facilitate their participation. For example, video streaming and BOC is the first bank among the peers to adopt video streaming. We also provided video playback and download of PPTs. And in terms of guaranteeing the right to be informed, our purpose is to improve transparency and to be more proactive, targeted and effective in information disclosure, and we have enriched and optimized the disclosure content. And we have made our language easier to understand so that retail investors can understand it. And in terms of guaranteeing the return right, we have written into our articles of association that we will prioritize cash dividend as a way of profit distribution so as to provide institutional guarantees for the investors. And by the end of 2022, the total cash dividend exceeded RMB 733.8 billion, which far exceed the amount of IPO financing ranking #4 among the domestic listed companies. Turning to your second question in terms of improving interaction with the retail investors, because there are a lot of different retail investors who are widely distributed and have limited access to information, we have dedicated personnel to answer the different kinds of queries and questions for the retail investors. I think there we can handle over 200 query items to hotline services, e-mails and e-platforms. And over the years, some retail investors have become old friends with. And day after day, they have better understood the financial performance and operational logic of BOC and has better understood and recognized the BOC's efforts and state-owned major banks to pay back to the society and the shareholders. And some retail investors have even sent us letters of praise. And for 4 consecutive years, we have organized investor receipt activity. And today's event is a very good example of the latest attempts and meaningful exploration of exchanges in communication with the retail investors. Also BOC has been dedicated to investor education protection activities, and we are among the first Chinese banks to set up a dedicated column for investor protection in our official website. So based on this events and practices, we have showed the investor value of BOC to the capital market, and we have gained a lot of positive feedback and recognition. In 2022, BOC's share price outperformed the market and the industry index. And the annual total returns for the Asia stocks, including the dividend return is exceeding 11%. And for the [ 8th ] share, it exceeded 10%. And BOC has been awarded the Best Investor Relations awarded by the media and has been recognized for our cash dividend, and also for our annual report results announcement. So for 9 consecutive periods, we have received the highest rating by the Shanghai Stock Exchange in terms of the disclosure annual assessment. Obviously, we will continue to adopt an open poster and to adopt the diversified channels to do a better job in investor relations work so as to contribute our share to building a modern capital market with Chinese [indiscernible], and we hope that we can get more support from the investors where we can grow together. Thank you.

Thank you. And for the interest of time, we will have last question to the representative from the Investor Protection Center.

We know that the sustainability has become a popular concept, and the ESG-related performance of the listed companies has attracted agreement from the capital market. In particular, a lot of potential has been given to the development potential of group finance areas. Over the years, on domestic years, domestic banks has focused on green finance due to regulatory requirements and market guidance. So I would like to know about the latest development in the related business of BOC. And how would you adopt a differentiated strategic positioning in business development in Green Finance?

I would like to invite [indiscernible] Deputy Manager from the Credit Management Department.

Thank you your questions. BOC has incorporated the concept of green development into the -- all the mix into our operation management and business development so as to contribute our share to the de-carbon goals. And in terms of that business development, first of all, our green loans have maintained a very rapid growth. We have participated in the land market green projects with global employees. And then we ranked #1 in terms of the Chinese institutions in the Bloomberg Global Green Loans and Sustainability Linked Loans, and we are a market leader in the green bonds. In 2022, we are the leading Chinese bank in terms of the insurance underwriting and investment of the green bonds. In terms of the issuance, we have issued the world's first green bonds based on the common ground taxonomy, and we have also introduced the world's first U.S. dollar-denominated biodiversity themed green bonds. And in terms of underwriting, in 2022, we ranked #1 among Chinese banks in terms of Bloomberg's global offshore green bonds banking. In terms of investment, we ranked #1 in terms of the 2022 green bond financing to investors by [indiscernible]. And in terms of differentiated strategic positioning and business development, BOC has taken advantage of our strategy of 1 main stage, 2 engines and have owned a unique path of green finance development. And in terms of globalization, BOC has actively supported the green local industries around the world. For example, our London branch is one of the leading banks after the syndicate, has supported one of the world's largest offshore wind farm. And also, our Paris branch has provided supply chain financial services for the French green energy projects through refractoring financing service models. And then this has provided innovative product channel, for enhancing the International Corporation for Green Finance. In terms of integrated business and services, BOC has connected commercial banks and the integrated business. We have provided differentiated green financial product options for businesses that are in the start-up stage, growth stage and maturity stage, and we have built the BOC green funds global brand, has introduced over 35 green financial project in services over 5 categories, covering bonds, deposits, investments, debts, equity, leasing and insurance. So we have met customers green financial, green financing, green assets allocation and green integrated financing needs on different perspective. Bank of China adheres to the mission of integrating the world and the benefit of society and also has been continuously optimizing the government structure of green financing approvals [indiscernible] development of green finance. We will continue to tap into our resources of being a globalized and integrated bank and constantly improve relevant policies and systems take the lead in the questions of green financial innovation assumed the social responsibility of the state-owned bank and help carbon [indiscernible] and carbon neutrality targets with our financial services. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. [indiscernible]. And also, I want to thank all the questions. One more time, thank you for the live discussion. But because of time constraint, we have to wrap up the session. Though this afternoon event, I believe that now you have understood. You see better. And definitely, I believe that this can help boost your confidence in investing in Bank of China. Let's give Bank of China our best wishes. So Bank of China can give us to be a better entity and also to provide greater value and returns to shareholders, customers and the society. This addition of [indiscernible] listed companies which are situated in the Bank of China will end right now. Thank you for support. See next time.

Now, the event has conclude successfully. Thank you. Goodbye.