Bacitracin Bank's net profit of $263 million by 2021

In its fourth year of existence, Bacera Bank's digital exploration has paid off in more ways than one.

CITIC Bank's recently disclosed 2021 annual report figures show that Bacera Bank turned a loss into a profit to achieve a net profit of 263 million yuan and a 74% year-on-year increase in net operating income; meanwhile, the non-performing loan ratio and new non-performing generation rate both dropped significantly.

As the first independent legal person in China, Baishin Bank is backed by two giants, CITIC Bank and Baidu, and has been positioned as an AI-driven digital inclusive bank since its inception. Over the past four years, Bacera Bank has focused on the digital finance track, continuously focusing on digital asset innovation and exploring the future banking development paradigm. According to the data, by 2021, the proportion of investment in technology will exceed 50% and the proportion of technology talents will exceed 60%, initially forming a "cloud-based, agile, intelligent and secure" technology feature.

In early 2022, the People's Bank of China and the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission have issued plans for the development of financial technology and guidelines for the digital transformation of the banking industry. As a "testing ground" for the digital transformation of the domestic banking industry, Bacera Bank has undertaken the mission of being a pioneer, and the Bacera model will certainly leave valuable experience for the reform.

Balanced development of scale, quality and efficiency

Bacera Bank was formally established in November 2017 and is the first independent legal person direct selling bank in China, with 2021 being its fourth full year of operation.

With its purely online and no offline outlets, the independent legal person direct bank is a typical digital bank that emphasises financial inclusion through technology empowerment, technology development and scenario penetration. From the user's perspective, its biggest difference is that it breaks through the limitations of the Bank's accounts and can be opened up to users of other banks. From a regulatory perspective, it is an important digital banking regulatory innovation and is expected to be highly regarded in the digital financial inclusion space.

Since its establishment more than four years ago, Bacera Bank has been committed to serving inclusive micro and small businesses, practicing the digital open banking model, focusing on industrial digital finance and actively exploring wealth management and transaction banking innovations.

Looking back at its performance over the past four years, 2018 saw its start, 2019 saw initial profitability, 2020 was affected by the epidemic and 2021 can be called a year of reversing the harvest.

According to CITIC Bank's annual report, at the end of 2021, Bacera Bank's total assets were RMB 79.406 billion, up 19.46% year-on-year; total liabilities were RMB 72.601 billion, up 21.20% year-on-year; and its subscriber base exceeded 69 million households. Net operating income was RMB2.998 billion, an increase of 74.05% year-on-year; net profit of RMB263 million was achieved, and profit before provisions and provision coverage ratio both increased significantly.

In terms of asset quality, the non-performing loan ratio and new non-performing generation rate both dropped significantly; the issuance of RMB2 billion of Tier 2 capital bonds was approved, and the AAA main long-term credit rating was once again obtained.

The main contribution to achieving the above performance was the steady increase in the scale of inclusive micro and small loans; green finance and auto finance businesses also achieved breakthroughs.