China Construction Bank Corporation

2007 Major Financial Indicators

 (As of 31 December 2007)

·       Operating income rose by 45.60% to RMB220.717 billion

(2006: RMB151.593 billion)

 ·       Profit before tax increased by 53.41% to RMB100.816 billion

(2006: RMB65.717 billion)

 ·       Net profit increased by 49.27% to RMB69.142 billion

(2006: RMB46.319 billion)

 ·       Earnings per share (basic and diluted) increased by 42.86% to RMB0.30

(2006: RMB0.21)

 ·       Return on average assets[1] rose by 0.23 percentage points, to 1.15%

(2006: 0.92%)

 ·       Return on average equity[2] advanced by 4.50 percentage points, to 19.50%

(2006: 15.00%)

 ·       Net interest spread rose by 0.38 percentage points, to 3.07%

(2006: 2.69%)

·       Net interest margin rose 0.39 percentage points, to 3.18%

(2006: 2.79%) 

·       Cost-to-income ratio declined by 2.14 percentage points, to 41.83%

(2006: 43.97%) 

·       Total assets increased by 21.10% to RMB6,598.177 billion compared to the end of last year

(As at 31 December 2006: RMB5,448.511 billion)  

·       Capital adequacy ratio¹ increased by 0.47 percentage points, to 12.58%, compared to the end of last year

(As at 31 December 2006: 12.11%)

 ·       Core capital adequacy ratio[3] increased by 0.45 percentage points, to 10.37%, compared to the end of last year

(As at 31 December 2006: 9.92%)

 ·       Allowances for impairment losses to non-performing loans ratio rose by 22.17 percentage points, to 104.41%, compared to the end of last year

(As at 31 December 2006: 82.24 %)

 ·       Non-performing loan ratio decreased by 0.69 percentage points, to 2.60% compared to the end of last year

(As at 31 December 2006: 3.29%)

·       The Board of Directors of China Construction Bank Corporation proposed a final cash dividend[4] of RMB0.065 per share for the six months as of 1 July, 2007 to 31 December, 2007.

[1] Calculated by dividing net profit by the average of total assets as at the beginning and end of the period under review.

[2] Calculated by dividing the Bank’s net profit attributable to shareholders by the weighted average value of total equity attributable to shareholders.

[3] Calculated in accordance with the guidelines issued by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (the “CBRC”) and the consolidated financial statements prepared by the PRC GAAP.

[4] The cash dividend for the six months as of July 2007 to 31 December 2007 amounted to RMB0.065. In addition, the interim cash dividend and the special cash dividend distributed by the Bank in 2007 amounted to RMB0.067 per share and RMB0.072716 per share respectively.

China Construction Bank Corporation  2007 Annual Results Announcement

Significant Achievements in Strategic Transformation with

Advancement of Financial Indicators of All Operations

Hong Kong, 11 April 2008, China Construction Bank Corporation (“CCB” or “the Bank”) (Stock Code: 939) today announced its 2007 annual results. In 2007, CCB fully implemented its scientific development strategy and followed the government’s macro-economic control policy, further enhanced the corporate governance structure and achieved the operating goals set in the Annual General Meeting and Board of Directors. The Bank reported historic highs in its major operating indicators, and met its phased goals in strategic transformation. Last year, the successful return of CCB shares to the A-share market constructed a new platform for capital operation, and enabled CCB to share returns with both domestic and overseas investors.

During the year, the Bank yielded a rich harvest in terms of operating results. According to the International Financial Reporting Standards (“IFRS”), as of 31 December 2007, the Bank’s (the Group) profit before tax reached RMB100.816 billion (figures mentioned below is calculated according to the IFRS and in RMB unless otherwise specified), representing an increase of 35.099 billion or a growth of 53.41%, while net profit grew by 49.27% or 22.823 billion, to 69.142 billion. Operating income rose by 45.60% to 220.717 billion.  Gross loans and advances to customers rose by 13.87% to 3,272.157 billion. As a result of the booming domestic securities market and the broadened investment channels for the public, the Bank’s liabilities have undergone a structural change, in which the growth rate in deposit and borrowing from other banks and financial institutions was higher than that in deposits from customers. The total liabilities of CCB rose by 20.66% to 6,175.896 billion. The Bank’s asset quality has been growing substantially. The non-performing loan ratio dropped by 0.69 percentage points, to 2.60%. The ratio of allowances for impairment losses to non-performing loans was 104.41%, with an increase of 22.17 percentage points compared to the end of last year, reflecting the Bank’s stronger capabilities in withstanding risks.

The capital adequacy ratio of CCB continued to increase in 2007.  57.119 billion of net capital was raised from the successful A-share listing of the Bank on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on 25 September 2007, the largest A-share IPO in terms of capital raised since ever at that time. As of 31 December 2007, the capital adequacy ratio was 12.58% with an increase of 0.47 percentage points compared to 31 December 2006. The core capital adequacy ratio increased by 0.45 percentage points, to 10.37% compared to the end of 2006.

CCB secured its leading position in domestic banking market in terms of overall profitability. As of 31 December 2007, net interest spread was 3.07% while net interest margin reached 3.18%, which were the best among domestic banks. Meanwhile, the return on average assets was 1.15% and return on average equity was 19.50%, an increase of 0.23 and 4.50 percentage points respectively from last year. As of 31 December 2007, the nominal amount of U.S. sub-prime mortgage loan-backed securities acquired by the Bank was USD1 billion, 93.03% of which was with credit ratings of A or above and the allowances for impairment losses on these securities amounted to USD630 million. Hence, the fluctuation in U.S. sub-prime bond market did not have a great impact on the Bank’s profitability.

CCB deepened its “customer-focused” philosophy and optimized service modes to improve customer experience. The effects of branch transformation were further demonstrated. In 2007, the deployment of retail branch transformation project, in cooperation with Bank of America, successfully standardized the service and sales mode at branches and realized service standardization and customer experience consistency. As of 31 December 2007, 5,266 retail branches of the Bank fulfilled functional transformation, accounting for 39.16% of all of its retail branches. The daily average product sales of the transformed branches reported an increase of 215%, operational efficiency rose by 30% to 40%, and the customer waiting time was shortened by 29%. At the same time, the reform of middle and back office supporting system processed steadily.

CCB’s outstanding performance gained positive recognition from capital markets and investors worldwide. In 2007, the Bank was ranked 69th of the “World’s 2000 Largest Public Companies” by Forbes in the U.S. and was ranked 14th on the “World’s Top 1000 Banks” list, compiled by The Banker in the U.K.. CCB was also named “Best Bank in China 2007” by Global Finance magazine in U.S. and The Asset in Hong Kong, and was awarded the “Corporate Social Responsibility Award” and the “Most Responsible Enterprise Award 2007” by The Chamber of Hong Kong Listed Companies and jointly presented by China News Weekly and the Chinese Red Cross Foundation respectively.

“2007 was a fruitful year for CCB, by posting strong growth in operating results, achieving historical highs in profitability and enhancing the Bank’s comprehensive competitiveness and market influence.” said Mr. Guo Shuqing, Chairman of CCB. 

Continuous Optimization of Corporate Governance Drove Fundamental Changes in Operational Mechanism

During 2007, the Board of Directors of CCB held 11 board meetings and discussed 64 proposals; two general meetings of shareholders and 23 meetings of committees under the Board were convened, a total of 56 proposals were reviewed or pre-reviewed and 71 reports of various kinds were heard, including proposals related to substantial reform and development issues for CCB. Last year, CCB elected a new Board of Directors, of which independent directors accounted for more than one-third of the total number of directors.  This structure more closely conformed to international corporate governance practices, and further improved the decision-making capability of the Board of Directors. The Board also undertook comprehensive revision of its corporate governance documents, including the Articles of Association, the rules of procedure for the shareholders’ general meeting and board of Directors and the regulations for the committees under the Board of Directors. Such revision took into consideration the difference between the PRC mainland and Hong Kong law, and optimized the existing system, and demonstrated CCB’s efforts in pursuing the goal of best corporate governance.

The bank’s operating mechanism gets smoother and more efficient. CCB made great efforts in standardizing the corporate governance, and as a result, enhanced multi-level communications between shareholders, Board of Directors, Board of Supervisors and senior management. The relationship between check and balance systems and efficient decision-making is appropriately handled, allowing the Bank to take pre-emptive actions in the fast-and-ever-changing market.

Within the authorized scope by the Bank’s Articles of Association and the general meetings of shareholders, the Board of Directors made substantial efforts to explain and communicate major issues for the bank including revision of the Articles of Association, the Bank’s annual financial budget plan, proposals for distribution of profits, and external equity investments. The Board of Directors and the senior management were supervised during the year by the Board of Supervisors. 5 meetings of the Board of Supervisors were convened, providing supervising comments on the performance of the Board of Directors, senior management and their members during the year and auditing the budget plan, profit distribution proposal and regular financial reports. A closer relationship was forged between the Board of Directors and the Board of Supervisors, and they worked together on 7 special researches on strategic topics. The communication system and channels between the Board of Directors, Board of Supervisors and senior management saw continuous improvement during 2007. The autonomy in operational management within the authorized scope of the Board of Directors was further enhanced; Directors and Supervisors frequently attended important meetings including meetings of the president’s office, ensuring the effective fulfillment of their decision-making and supervisory duties. Last year, executive directors and independent directors were present in 116 various senior management meetings. Corporate governance systems successfully achieved checks and balances between different departments.

The strategic guiding position of the Board of Directors was further consolidated and enhanced within CCB’s corporate governance structure. In 2007, the Board had revised the development strategy framework. The new framework laid out clearly the goals and direction for the expansion of the Bank’s overseas business, the development of retail business, the promotion of intermediary businesses, the adjustment of the wholesale business structure and the promotion of integrated operations. The Board established a scientific annual operating plan and set fair levels for different operating indicators, so as to maintain the bank’s sustainable development and to maximize the shareholders’ returns. In the middle of last year, based on strategic investigation and research, the Board adjusted the annual operating plan, and provided more appropriate operating goals and allocation of resources. All these helped to lead the Bank to achieve higher-than-expected business growth. The Board and the management team also worked together to deepen institutional and human resources reforms, speed up channel construction, explore the building of a professional team, strengthen cooperation with strategic investors, and fulfill further changes in operating mechanisms, allowing the Bank to strive towards sound and rapid development.

The communication of the concepts of corporate governance was significantly strengthened. In 2007, the Board of Directors invited a number of senior management members and presidents of local branches to attend the meetings of the Board of Directors, so as to increase the understanding at the operational level of the resolutions made by the Board and further enhance the efficiency of communicating the concepts of corporate governance within the Bank. Meanwhile, CCB continued to promote a democratic management and supervisory structure. In 2007, CCB convened a third meeting of the First CCB Employee Representative Assembly to review proposals related to benefits for employees. CCB also emphasized and listened to fair suggestions provided by employees in its business development, and invited front office associates to participate in work meetings of the Bank.  Furthermore, monitoring by the public and the media has become a key part of the Bank’s corporate governance.

Continued Promotion of Internal Reform Boosting Customer Service Quality

While the Bank implemented branch transformation in full swing, it also put great effort into the establishment of professional marketing and service teams, such as wealth management and personal finance centres, forming a multi-level service system to allow CCB to provide different clients with differentiated and customized services. In 2007, CCB had opened 741 personal finance centres and 74 wealth management centres, providing medium- and high-end clients with private banking services including cash management, property purchase, investment trust, equity arrangement, as well as tax planning and children’s education.

The Bank enhanced and optimized its personal loan systems and processes and significantly boosted its innovation and integration ability in personal loan services and products. In 2007, CCB launched a number of innovative offerings, such as ”Safe House Trading” (房易安), a trading fund custody service; “Provident Housing Fund Long Card” (公积金龙卡) with multiple settlement functions including housing fund withdrawal and account balance inquiry; ”Borrow and Save” (存贷通), a value-added personal loan account service and SMS notification for personal loan service. Furthermore, the Bank aggressively tapped the credit market for secondary housing market while growing its established home mortgage business.

The Bank continued to deepen reform in its corporate banking business, and steadily proceeded with the establishment of a product innovation system. In 2007, the Bank established a layered operational model allowing it to target different levels of customers, according to their individual demands, risk tolerance, and profitability. In order to accelerate its market responsiveness, shorten management processes, and improve customer satisfaction, tier-one and tier-two branches and selected city branches will be responsible for handling medium- and high-end clients. In terms of product innovation, CCB strengthened the research on cross-market products and made substantial achievements in innovations in strategic products such as financed lease. The development of the GTS operation system has become more rapid. The Bank’s corporate product line has been further richen , following the introduction of extended products such as the non-fixed asset mortgage product series and commercial property mortgage loans. CCB also introduced “trust-based credit scale products” and preliminarily formed a relatively complete line of commercial wealth management products, in the areas of trust, bond, interest rate-linked and exchange rate-linked transactions and QDII products. The aggregate revenue from retail financial products exceeded 30 billion, fulfilling the financing needs of customers.

CCB continued to optimize procedures and improve the management of human resources, finance, information and IT, establishing multi-functional business support centres, aiming to bring the product sales and customer services functions into full play as well as to enhance the support to the Bank’s business development. The Bank completed 49 out of 60 projects to fully segregate the core operations between front and back office functions and centralized the back office operations. 85% of the city branches have centralized the handling of tasks such as branch management, financing and accounting, filing and computer management at the back-office. 19 mutli-functional business support centres were established, employing 5,300 staff.   A lot of operational, repetitive, non-real-time and non-trading related tasks were centralized across regions to enhance overall operational efficiency. With the centralized cash flow management covering more than 95% of the branches, the number of vaults throughout the Bank was reduced by 138 at the beginning of the year to 849 by the end of the year, and number of staff reported a reduction of 3,341 by the end of 2007.

Electronic banking attained outstanding development through innovation. The increasingly mature product portfolio and a growing client base was instrumental in reducing the burden of counter services and thus in saving the operational cost. In 2007, the ratio of transactions completed via online banking channels to those done at front offices was 36.19%, an increase of 18.53 percentage points when compared with 2006. The number of online clients grew by 63.32% to 70.6975 million, while online transaction volume leaped by 134.16% from 2006 to 1.899 billion transactions, which involved a trading amount of 119.94 trillion, up by 290.81% from 2006. Furthermore, CCB made its services more convenient and accessible by continuing expanding coverage of its self-service banking centers and ATMs. As of 31 December 2007, the Bank had 23,857 ATMs, an addition of 4,367 machines when compared with 2006, and 2,729 self-service banking centers, up by 1,083 units from 2006. There were over 100 kinds of transactions and services available at these self-service banking centers.

CCB has been improving its card products with more comprehensive functionalities, ensuring rapid development in card services. As of 31 December 2007, the total circulation of the Bank’s debit cards grew by 37.4118 million year-on-year to 224 million, while consumption amount advanced by 91.73% to 407.416 billion. Meanwhile, the cumulative circulation of CCB Long Credit Card reached 12.6042 million, of which 6.2625 million cards were issued in 2007, or a growth of 98.75% when compared with 2006. The Long Credit Card generated consumption amount of 78.664 billion in 2007, a year-on-year increase of 94.39%, and a loan balance of 10.037 billion, up by 115.76% compared with last year.

Gradual Deepening of Structural Transformation and Improvement of Operational Efficiency

In 2007, the Bank proactively embraced the changes in the market, adjusted its operating strategy, optimized its credit portfolio, customer structure and revenue portfolio, entailing significant improvements.

Firstly, credit portfolio was gradually optimized. As of 31 December 2007, balance of corporate loans amounted to 2,344.757 billion, a rise of 13.94% compared to the end of 2006, while infrastructure loans increased to 846.13 billion, representing an increase of 18.93%, accounting for 46.96% of the increase of corporate loans. The Bank achieved a dual goal of controlling the amount of personal loans and optimizing the loan structure. The amount of personal loans as at the end of 2007 was 723.805 billion, representing an increase of 138.72 billion, of which residential mortgage loans increased by 23.33% or 99.849 billion when compared to last year. The Bank maintained a leading position in residential mortgage loans. In addition, the Bank obtained good results in providing financial services to small business, with an increase of 10,841 small business accounts and the balance of loans to small businesses reached 224.477 billion, up by 16.3%. The growth was contributed by the increasing popularity of financial products targeting at small enterprises such as “Quick Finance” and “Road to Growth”.

Secondly, CCB further improved its customer structure, strictly upheld the entry and exit standards for credit customers, and raised the threshold for granting loans to industries with excessive production capacity, high-energy consumption and high-pollution, or in some cases even rejecting loan applications in these areas. Instead, the bank focused on new loans to leading quality companies. All these measures helped to increase the proportion of loans granted to customers with internal credit ratings of A or above to 88.61% of total corporate loans, an increase of 5.04 percentage points from the end of last year. The 128% increase of loans advanced to high-end clients, comparing to the end of the previous financial year reflected a continuous optimization of the high-end customer mix and the asset scale.

Thirdly, the income structure of CCB continued to improve. As of 31 December 2007, net interest income was 192.775 billion, up 37.34% compared to last year and was higher than the growth of gross interest-earning assets. Net fee and commission income was 31.313 billion, representing an increase of 130.73% from last year, accounting for 14.19% of the gross operating income, an increase of 5.24 percentage points year on year. Following the optimization of the business structure, the contribution from the corporate, personal and treasury businesses accounted for 60.9%, 25.9% and 13.2% of profit respectively. This shows that the profit model of the Bank is undergoing quality change following the business transformation.

The Bank has been strengthening its budget management and cost control. The efforts led to a decreasing cost-to-income ratio and continuous improvement of operation efficiency. The cost-to-income ratio declined by 2.14 percentage points compared with 2006, to 41.83%.

Capturing Opportunities, Achieving Remarkable Development in fee and commission income business 

By capturing opportunities generated by the development of Mainland China’s capital market, the fund distribution business of CCB showed robust growth. In 2007, the Bank acted as a sales agent for 233 funds with a sales volume of 772.751 billion, representing a sevenfold increase when compared with 2006. Realized revenue from service charges increased more than tenfold compared to 2006, reaching 11.745 billion. Furthermore, CCB marketed 242 batches of personal domestic and foreign currency wealth management products, such as “Profit from Interest” (利得盈), “Profit from Exchange” (汇得盈) and offerings designed for the QDII scheme. These products were highly valued by clients and by the market for their excellent product configuration and stable performance.

Revenue from the Bank’s card business hit a record high. In 2007, revenue from debit-card service fees grew by 58.13% from 2006 to 3.723 billion, while realized fee income from credit card operations was 698 million, a growth of 154.92% when compared with 2006.

Staying abreast with capital markets, CCB created innovations in its investment fund custody business and boosted its market competitiveness. In 2007, the Bank became the first Chinese bank to launch asset regulatory service for corporate collateral bonds. As of 31 December 2007, the value of custody assets managed by CCB was 928.243 billion, representing an increase of 249.97% from 2006. CCB was the second largest bank by the net value of fund custody and obtained an income of 1.025 billion from the business, 3.9 times the 2006 amount. Meanwhile, the Bank continued to expand its cooperation with the securities and insurance sectors, as seen in the increase of the number of its contract-bound partners to 105, accounting for 98% of all domestic securities companies, with its third-party custody business for trade settlements. CCB was also the leader in the growth in deposits from securities firms, as well as the increment and growth of income from the insurance agency business.

CCB saw a rapid and healthy growth in its investment banking operations in 2007. Through short-term bond underwriting, wealth management offerings, direct investment, underwriting for IPO shares and asset securitization, the Bank helped clients deliver financing of 115.4 billion. The investment banking business generated revenue of 2.49 billion, more than doubling the 2006 amount. In addition, CCB achieved breakthroughs in its trials of integrated operations. CCB Principal Asset Management Co., Ltd. delivered rapid development with its assets under management reaching 52.7 billion at the end of 2007, and realized annual net profit of 249 million, while CCB Financial Leasing Corporation, a joint venture with Bank of America, is currently the largest financial leasing company in China in terms of registered capital.

The treasury operation has been expanding, with a steady increase in operating income and market share from transactions of local and foreign currencies. In 2007, the volume of customer-driven purchases and sales of RMB and foreign exchange transactions reached USD199.7 billion, representing a rise of 65%. Realized income amounted to 2.255 billion, with a 44% increase. Transaction volume of customer-driven foreign exchange derivatives was USD11.1 billion, increased by 25% from the previous year, and its realized income increased by 174% to 362 million.

The Bank’s international operations also showed strong growth momentum. The annual international settlements increased by 49.95% to USD285.395 billion in 2007. In five performance indicators, including growth in international trade settlement, as well as the balance and income increase of foreign bank guarantees, CCB held the leading position among the big four domestic banks of China. Furthermore, CCB continued to steadily implement its overseas development strategy. In November 2007, CCB opened a representative office in Sydney, Australia. The Bank also submitted an application for the establishment of a branch in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The Bank obtained approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission with respect to upgrading the Bank’s representative office in New York to branch office, and also planned to set up a subsidiary bank in London and operational units in Dubai and Doha.

Improvement in Risk Management of All Operations and Continuous Optimization of Asset Quality

By promoting comprehensive risk management throughput the corporation, CCB saw significant enhancements in its capacity for internal controls and risk management, as well as in the quality of its assets, laying a solid foundation for business development. The non-performing loan ratio of CCB has declined for three consecutive years and has been at the lowest level among the big four domestic banks of China. Thanks to its outstanding risk control, CCB was recognized with the “Best Financial Risk Management in China 2007” awarded by Asia Risk Magazine.

Since its restructuring and listing, CCB has been committed to deepening the reform of risk management systems and fostering a culture of good risk control. As a pioneer in risk-management system reforms and management standards, CCB has implemented risk measures based on a thorough understanding of clients and the market and has shifted its focus from passive avoidance and follow-up on risk to active manipulation. In 2007, the Bank preliminarily established an overall risk-management framework and further defined a mechanism of vertical reporting. This formed a risk control system which is thoroughly applied to the whole corporation and all stages of business processes. In addition, CCB continued to employ a number of integrated qualitative and quantitative measures, including economic capital measurements, provision system and a 12-grade classification system, to accelerate the formation of a set of risk measurement metrics, such as optimization of credit rating, retail scorecard, portfolio management, as well as management and monitoring of collateral. As a pioneer in credit risk limit control based on industry, the Bank has built up a systematic alert system to identify, assess and monitor market risks, so as to lessen risks concentrated in specific industries. Furthermore, CCB has set up a tier-one branch-based, off-site monitoring system for front-office operational risks to achieve the centralization of the post-audit of accounting operations. The Bank’s all-people-involved triple-level defense mechanism was also strengthened. Furthermore, CCB tightened its handling of non-performing assets and became the first domestic commercial bank of Mainland China engaged in securitization projects for non-performing assets.

To consolidate its internal controls, CCB further reformed its audit system and to complete a vertical management model, ensuring direct management of all audit operations and associates in the Bank and gradually improving the audit system of vertical report escalation in the outlet organization and also the dual reporting mechanism. This provides a reliable safeguard for the independence, authority and effectiveness of the Bank’s audit operations, as well as continuing to enhance its audit capability and the standards of its integrated internal audit process. With effective prevention and control measures, CCB saw decreases in unlawful acts, decreases in the RMB amount involved, as well as decreases in the number of illegitimate incidents of at least a million RMB and the amount involved in such cases in 2007. Moreover, CCB established standardized and simplified operations after fully reviewing its main process from the views of clients. Not only did the improvements facilitate clients’ activities, but they also helped control risk.

In response to the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the U.S., CCB thoroughly enhanced its risk management processes by adjusting authorization, increasing the frequency of asset evaluation, tracking risk movements, adopting precautions and accomplishing internal controls, so as to minimize the influence of the turmoil.

Dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibilities, Contributing to Harmonious Society

Apart from developing in a rapid and healthy manner, CCB is highly concerned about the common interest of its stakeholders, including the country, the community and the Bank’s shareholders, staff, clients and partners. Therefore, CCB is committed to carrying out its corporate social responsibilities (CSR) and actively contributing to the progress to a harmonious society. In 2007, CCB became the first among major commercial banks of Mainland China to publish a CSR report.

After listing, CCB has established a mission to ‘provide better service to customers, create higher value for our shareholders, establish a broad development platform for employees and fully execute the corporate social responsibilities. This led the Bank to review and re-define the social responsibilities as a state-owned commercial bank. CCB has put great effort into reforms and development and is committed to prudent operations, scientific development, as well as a people-oriented and considerate approach to management, so as to understand and carry out its CSR, in which the Bank has continuously contributed to the formation of a harmonious society, civic life and public welfare. In 2007, the Bank implemented 14 charitable projects with a total donation of approximately 197 million, of which 120 million were donations to help impoverished but high-potential high-school students in 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, mostly located in the central and western parts of Mainland China, to finish their studies. A donation of 50 million was allocated to the launch of the financing programme for “Impoverished Mothers of Heroes & Exemplary Workers in China”, which aimed to provide aid to the livelihood of the mothers and wives of role models in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Armed Police Force and ordinary police units. Furthermore, CCB joined forces with Bank of America to sponsor and provide financial services to the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai. CCB’s enthusiasm for CSR activities is well recognized and highly appreciated by the society.

With its remarkable performance in 2007, CCB has maintained strong operations since its listing, and has further consolidated its achievements through reform. “The overall fundamentals of the global economy will still be steady in 2008, but more uncertainties of economic growth are laying ahead. Amid new challenges as well as opportunities, we will actively ride on economic and financial trends, adjust our business strategies and strengthen our competence of operation and management, so as to achieve our annual targets,” said Mr. Zhang Jianguo, president of CCB.

Background Information:

The history of the China Construction Bank Corporation (“the Bank”) dates back to 1954 when the People’s Construction Bank of China was founded.  This entity was renamed China Construction Bank in 1996. China Construction Bank Corporation was formed in September 2004 when it separated from its predecessor, China Construction Bank, and assumed its commercial banking business and related assets and liabilities. Headquartered in Beijing, CCB had a network of over 13,000 branches and sub-branches in Mainland China as of 31 December 2007, and maintained overseas branches in Hong Kong, Singapore, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Tokyo and Seoul, as well as representative offices in London, New York and Sydney. The Bank holds a 100% interest of China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited, CCB International (Holdings) Co., Ltd., a 75.1% interest of Sino-German Bausparkasse, a 65% interest in CCB Principal Asset Management Co. Ltd and a 75.1% interest of CCB Financial Leasing Corporation Ltd. It has a total of approximately 300,000 staff.

The Bank was listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (Stock Code: 939) on 27 October 2005 and was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE Code: 601939) on 25 September 2007.

Principal business segments:

-          Corporate banking, which provides financial products and services to corporations, government agencies and financial institutions, including corporate loans, trade financing, deposit taking, agency services, consulting and advisory, cash management, remittance, settlement, custody and guarantee services;

-          Personal banking, which provides financial products and services to individual customers, including personal loans, deposit taking, bank cards, personal wealth management, remittance and securities agency services; and

-          Financial operations, which involves money market businesses, consisting of inter-bank transactions and repurchase transactions; covers investment portfolio management, including securities held for both trading and investment purposes; and conducts trading on behalf of customers, including foreign currency and derivatives trading.