Bank of China †Survey of products and services provided Essay

Personal Banking. In the personal banking segment one of the principal products and services include deposit products. The Bank of China provides a variety of deposit products including foreign currency deposits. It has also included multifunctional debit card which can assist financial planning. (Deposits, 2006). It has also got a facility for deposit collections at different places which facilitate those with transferable jobs or changing residences frequently to follow up their deposits without any geographical constraints (Deposits, 2006). Deposit Certificates are being issued by the Bank for people’s needs for studying abroad, visiting relatives or for domestic requirements. (Deposits, 2006). The bank also provides facilities for payment of fees, providing pay to employees, stock fund transfer service and handling of securities trading services. (Deposits, 2006). In addition Personal Checks are provided for high value account holders for making large purchases which are beyond the credit card limits allotted. (Personal Check, 2006). In the loans segment, Bank of China is providing a variety of loans to its personal customers. The primary loans include educational loans which can be commercial or state. The latter are at discounted interests by the central financial authorities in China, while commercial loans are for financing tuition and other fees which is supported privately. (Loans, 2006). Auto loans include financing for purchase of cars. In addition there are travel loans to facilitate in board as well as out board travel which however has to be only through approved travel company services as per bank norms. (Loans, 2006). There are petty consumer credit loans which are provided for facilitating normal consumption needs of customers such as labor service and fee payments. (Loans, 2006). For such purposes the client is required to be credit worthy. A normal service provided by the Bank is renting of safe deposit box. (Loans, 2006). Another important service provided by the bank is that of Bancassurance, which involves a tie up with the insurance companies, providing the client a full range of services to include insurance, premiums on policy and preservation at a savings outlet in BOC. (Bancassurance, 2006). Corporate Banking. In the corporate banking sector, the Bank of China has a strong presence with a global profile. Its experience and expertise is seen to be of particular benefit to the Chinese businessman seeking to do business globally. (Corporate, 2006) The bank claims to provide unique services based on its ability to assess market sensitivity. The various corporate services provided by the bank include financing for trade, risk controls, protection of risk of debt and is extending even further to management of ledger and collection. (Corporate, 2006). In the loans segment the various types of loans include providing working capital to the companies, for financing projects, real estate businesses, fixed assets and loans on foreign currency. (Corporate, 2006) Business is provided finance in various forms of credit such as a normal credit line, credit for export buyers, finance lease guarantees, credit for export sellers, accounts receivable purchases and labor service contracts. (Corporate, 2006). For international businesses, the services provided include both inward and outward remittance, collection of letters of credit for both imports and exports, bill discounting, packing loan and guarantees for businesses and shipping. (Corporate, 2006). The investment banking services include a financial advisory service, cash management, loan trusts and agent bank business. The bank has also developed extensive e banking services to include i-banking, telephone banking and mobile phone banking. These services are seen to be highly effective in providing the corporate a variety of mediums of interaction on the World Wide Web. (Corporate, 2006). In the segment of foreign exchange and settlement, it is the lead bank in China and hence enjoys considerable leverage in the Chinese banking industry. This caters for individual and personal foreign exchange needs. (Forex, 2006). It has also facilities for forward transactions in foreign exchange Global business facilities include same day facility of funds transfer with the GLOBAL NICS programme in place which enables transactions across 581 overseas branches in 26 countries and regions on a single computer network. (Global, 2006). Linked to SWIFT communications, it enables a safe and speedy transaction for business persons. This is particularly significant with the extensive network of the Bank within China comprising of over 12,000 branches. It also facilitates international clients to transfer money within China speedily. (Global, 2006). Overseas Presence. The Banks overseas presence has been consistently growing after the China Development Finance Company (HK) was established in 1979, followed by Bank of China Groups Securities Limited in 1983, Bank of China International UK Ltd 1996 and Bank of China International in Hong Kong in 1998. (BOCI, 2006). The subsequent entry of BOCI into mainland has provided it added opportunity to establish close links with stable Chinese corporations to include China National Petroleum Corporation, State Development & Investment Corporation, China General Technology (Group) Holdings Limited and so on. (BOCI, 2006) This enables strengthening of the financial link of the Bank providing it greater stability in the international as well as national banking domains. (BOCI, 2006). Banking Facilitation. The BOC is also an agent bank for a large number of other banks providing them the services of consignment banking to manage loans between borrowers and the agent bank. The consignment banks include China Import and Export Bank and the State Development Bank. (Agent, 2006). This provides the client bank the advantage of drawing upon the experience, expertise and network of a larger bank with an international presence as the BOC. A relatively high quality of service is said to be provided to the agent bank by BOC. Generally a tripartite agreement is signed between the BOC, the client bank and the borrower. (Agent, 2006).