London, UK, July 10th — the acclaimed British magazine Euromoney reveals its annual ranking for global Awards for Excellence 2014. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Europe) S.A. (hereafter refers to as “ICBC (Europe) S.A.”) stands out from the intense competition and wins the title as “Best Bank in Luxembourg” for its outstanding performance. To be the first ever overseas institution of a Chinese bank honored by Euromoney with this coveted Award, it demonstrates full recognition of the progress made in Chinese banking globalization during recent years.

Euromoney is the world’s leading financial periodical and its annual conducted Awards for Excellence aim to highlight excellence in different business scopes among countries and regions in the world. The ranking is widely respected as one of the most influential in the financial sector. Every year banks around the world compete fiercely for the Awards. According to Euromoney, winner of this year’s Awards are banks that excelled at financial strength, profits, market value and other related indicators.

Nowadays the Luxembourg financial center is the second largest investment fund center around the world, the leading private banking center in the Eurozone and the largest captive reinsurance center in Europe. 150 banks, subsidiaries or branches of major banking institutions from 26 different countries, are established in Luxembourg and focus their activities on the international markets. Winning the Award among peers reflects ICBC (Europe) S.A.’s competitiveness and brand dominance.

ICBC (Europe) S.A., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC Ltd.), was established on September 5th 2006. With Luxembourg as its hub in Europe, ICBC (Europe) S.A. has extended its presence to 8 countries, namely Luxembourg, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Poland and Portugal.

Since the opening day, ICBC (Europe) S.A. has been making the best advantages of ICBC group and regional resources, actively providing comprehensive financial services for Chinese companies in Europe while striving to attract target customers on the local market. Over years, the overall competitiveness and sustainability has been substantially improved, making it the flagship of ICBC group in Europe and the most rapidly-growing Chinese commercial bank in the European region. During the last 3 years, its performance indicators such as assets, profitability have been improving continuously. From 2011 to 2013, ICBC (Europe) S.A. asset scale doubled which resulted in the net profit margin of 2013 tripled of that of 2012, while its CAGR reached 72.7%. All these figures show a great momentum and it’s also worth mentioning that ICBC (Europe) S.A. maintains a record of zero non-performing loan while developing in leaps and bounds.

Apart from the efforts to serve Chinese clients “going Global” by bridging domestic facilities with international networks, ICBC (Europe) S.A. is also gearing up to penetrate into the local mainstream market. Almost 90% companies from “Fortune 500” in Europe have established business relationships with ICBC (Europe) S.A., which makes it the "Bank of First Choice" for European customers who intend to develop business relationships with China.

At the same time, ICBC (Europe) S.A. values the diversification of business activities and encourages innovation. Investment banking, private banking, asset management, global cash management as well as cross-border RMB business are range of emerging areas which play an increasingly important role in contributing to the profits in the future. Consequently, ICBC (Europe) S.A. is striving to strengthen its core competitiveness to ensure sustainable development in the long term.