ICBC personal financing products hit $21.3 bln

    BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) sold 154.4 billion yuan (about 21.3 billion U.S. dollars) of personal financing products in 2007, up 126.49 percent year on year.

    ICBC introduced 35 personal financing products in yuan and 24 products in foreign currencies last year, said company sources here on Friday without elaborating.

    The sales volume made ICBC the first bank in China to surpass the 100billion yuan mark in personal financing products, the sources said.

    In 2007, China's commercial banks starting giving greater attention to private banking instead of corporate business.

    The revenue structure of banks became more optimistic towards investment return and intermediary business income, accounting for a larger part in total income.

    In 2006, ICBC had net assets of 530.8 billion yuan, with a capital adequacy ratio of 14.05 percent.

    Media reports said last year that ICBC -- which is listed in both Hong Kong and Shanghai -- ranked first among world banks with total market capitalization of 337.2 billion U.S. dollars.