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Q3 ICBC Call. I'm Wang Le from Corporate Strategy and IR Department. Today, ICBC SEVP Mr. Yao Mingde and the general managers of relevant departments and subsidiaries to carry out this communication review. The Q3 results were already released. In general, since this year, we faced low-interest rate environments. We accelerated intelligent risk control, modern layouts, digital drivers, diverse infrastructure, ecological foundation, the so-called Five Transformations. We cultivated new drivers and created a new balance between income and expenses. Our operations remained robust. First, the main indicators performed well. In the first three quarters, net income was over CNY 270 billion by 0.2%. The increase turned positive. Operating income was CNY 599.1 billion. The decrease shrunk. NPL ratio was 1.35%, down by one basis point. Capital adequacy ratio was 19.25%. Provision coverage ratio maintained above 200%. Second, balance sheet continued to expand. Total assets were CNY 48.3 trillion by CNY 3.7 trillion.
The loans increased by CNY 2 trillion. Investments were CNY 1.4 trillion. The mix continued to be optimized. Liabilities were CNY 44.4 trillion by CNY 3.5 trillion. The deposit deviation recorded the lowest in the same term in recent five years. For the high-quality development drivers, continuing to pick up GBC+ strategy, and ICBC continued to optimize. Personal customers increased to 755 million. Corporate customers were 13.15 million. MAU of mobile banking was over 200 million. Such is the briefing of the Q3 results of ICBC. Now we will start the Q&A session. Please raise questions, and before that, please identify yourself with your institution and NIM. Thank you. The first question, please. The first question comes from Xu Yuan of Morgan Stanley. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm the analyst from Morgan Stanley, Xu Yuan. First of all, congratulations on ICBC.
The Q3 net income was better than expected, but the operating income and PPOP were negative. The credit cost was already very low. In the future, we will increase provision in Q4. Will the non-interest income continue to maintain high growth to contribute to operating income? When loan and fee-based income face pressure, what is the outlook for the full year and next year's profitability? Will the net income maintain positive growth? Thank you for your support and concern for ICBC. For this question, I would like to invite Mr. Duan Hongtao, General Manager of Finance and Accounting Department, to answer your question. First, for the provision, we follow accounting principles and regulatory requirements. The provision is decided by several relationships between several factors. First, according to the accounting principles, we consider how much provision we need to maintain.
Second, how much provision we need to maintain at the end of the term. Third, how much we have spent for the provision for the term. And fourth, we consider the disposal, how much provision we have made back to the book. So this is decided by the comparison of the multiple factors for ICBC. First, we strictly follow accounting principles and the ECL, and also the regulatory requirements for provisioning. In the future, all these are the premises of our future provision strategies. Second, for today's strategy, our operating income will continue to decrease. This is a trend for the whole sector. We hope to establish a good balance between income and expense. And we need to strengthen our loan growth. First, we save the write-off resources.
Second, when we stimulate the potential in some non-performing loans, by comprehensively considering the two factors, we decide how much provision we do for the term. When we compare the provision at the beginning and at the end of the term, we think that the provision will continue to decrease the provision than that of the last terms. For Q4, we will continue such strategy. Whether the provision will increase or will be back to the book, I think it is decided by the comparison of the major factors. I think by effectively managing all the resources, we will try our best to save the resources and through disposal so as to save the new provisioning and control the credit cost to support a better performance. For your second question about other non-interest income, especially after September, our non-interest income has shown a robust momentum for Q3.
Our operating income decrease was remarkably better than expected. You can see that the decrease remarkably shrank than that of H1. So this comes from partially the contribution of non-interest income. There are several reasons. First, the better performance of the capital markets. We have seen some increase in the equity products and investments. And also, when we saw the better performance of the foreign exchange markets, we have seen some better performance in the foreign exchange income. And also, in adapting to the new changes, the financial market business has applied comprehensive tools to earn more in the trading business. So that we have seen an increase in non-interest income for Q4. For the performance of the capital markets, we think the attitude was quite positive. In equity markets, we believe Q4 will continue the robust growth.
Also, for debt investments, we will continue to operate well for the foreign exchange markets. Now, the RMB to US dollar, I think the momentum is quite robust. But it's hard to say whether we can keep a robust growth in Q4, but we are fully confident to continue such trends. Third, at present, net interest margins still face downward pressure. The fee-based income is affected by the fee reduction policy and the investment appetite of the industries. It is facing downward pressure for the full year and next year. We have several opinions. First, from macro perspective, especially after September, we have seen multiple new policies, whether it's fiscal or financial policies. Against this background, they will provide a positive environment for the operation of the bank. The confidence for consumption is recovery. The industries are picking up.
So, we believe these will provide more business opportunities for banks and for the real estate market and LGFV. There are also policies which are conducive to saving the credit costs for banks. We believe thus for banks, they will be conducive for the operation of the bank. Internally, we pay high attention to the pressures and challenges if we will continue our high-quality development and create a more balanced and stable balance of credit income and expense. First, adapt to the low-interest rate environment and stabilize net interest income. We think that net interest margin will still face downward pressure, but the management will continue to strengthen the adjustments of the asset mix and stabilize income and optimize loan mix and mitigate the downward pressure of interest yield and stabilize net interest margin for fee-based income and non-interest rates.
Non-interest income, we will continue to let the business lines grasp new chances, especially grasp the chances in the midst of the good performance of the markets so as to cultivate more sources in wealth management and also the potential of subsidiaries and foreign institutions in its contribution to our income. And third, in asset quality management, we hope to strengthen asset quality management and cultivate the potential and advantage of ICBC in comprehensive risk management and also in risk cost control. We will continue such management system and promote an active prevention, smart control, and comprehensive management to keep our asset quality to be stable and increase the non-performing loans disposal so as to promote the risk resilience capabilities and decrease the new credit cost by the comprehensive measures. We hope to increase. We hope to maintain the balance between the income and expenses. Thank you.
For the bond investment in non-interest income, I'll invite the General Manager from Financial Markets Department to make some supplement. This year, the bond market performs quite well. So the trading income recorded 2.5 times compared with the last term. So in the last three days of the term, there may be some fluctuations, but for the full year, the non-interest income has contributed a lot for the operating income. Thank you. The next question.
Now, let's invite Lin Yingqi from CICC. The floor is yours, Mr. Lin Yingqi. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I'm Lin Yingqi from CICC. First of all, congratulations to the management. ICBC's NIM stabilized in Q3 with a recent monetary policy package. How much impact will the interest rate cuts and deposit rate cuts have on ICBC's NIM in Q4 and 2025? Deposit interest rates have been declining in recent years.
Is there any room for further decline? Considering the impact of both assets' liabilities, what is the outlook for ICBC's subsequent NIM trend? Thank you. Thank you so much for your question. Regarding the topic, we will invite Mr. Fu. Thank you so much for your question. I also want to thank you for your attention to NIM. I want to answer questions in three aspects. The first one regarding the impact of the package of monetary policy recently. The PBOC, in conjunction with relevant departments, issued a package of monetary policies to support stable economic growth, including reduced reserve ratio and interest rate cuts, U.S. debt financial policies, policies to support the stable development of the capital market, to boost confidence in the market.
It will definitely promote the smooth operation of the real economy and play a very important role in favor of the commercial banks to continue sound operation. Specifically speaking, first, the reserve ratio cut directly provides the bank with low-cost long-term funds, which is conducive to reducing the cost of bank funds and enhance the capability of our financial sector to serve the real economy. Secondly, the MLF and the deposit interest rate decreases is conducive to reducing the bank's cost of funds. And thirdly, the deposit and mortgage interest rate decline is conducive to reducing the early prepayment of loans, stabilizing the size of the bank's assets and improving the vitality of the consumption from the residents.
And however, we are also aware that with the downward adjustment of LPR, deposit, mortgage rate cuts, and other policies, there is a great downward pressure on the level of returns on the asset side. From the perspective of the pace of loan repricing, this round of rate cuts will have a very small impact on the interest income in Q4, but it will have a very great impact on the interest income for the whole year of 2025. The liability side is affected by the slower pace of deposit repricing, and the cost-saving effect of the interest rate adjustment will be relatively lagging. That's my response to your first aspect of your question.
Secondly, regarding the trend of the deposit rates, since this year, the deposit listing rate was cut twice in July and October, respectively, with a cumulative 10 BP cut in the interest rate for current deposits and a cumulative reduction of around 35-45 BP for time deposit adjusted by maturity. On the whole, after the reduction of the deposit listing rate in October, if there are no special circumstances, it is less likely to be reduced again during the year. In the future, we will closely monitor the market situation, policy interest rate changes, and other factors to comprehensively study and flexibly adjust the deposit listing rate.
Thirdly, regarding the outlook on the subsequent interest margin trend, currently, the overall interest margin of the banking industry is at a low level, and it is expected that the trend of declining interest margin and the narrowing interest margin will continue next year. But the magnitude of the narrowing interest margin will be narrowed. In the three quarters of 2024, our net interest margin amounted to 1.43%, unchanged from the interim period, down by 18 basis points from the beginning of this year and 7 basis points narrower than the same period. While actively playing the role of a large state-owned bank as the main force to serve the real economy, we have also taken initiatives to strengthen the adjustment of asset liability layouts under a low-interest rate environment. On the asset side, we have done a great job in arranging major asset classes, optimizing credit allocation, and accurate pricing.
On the liability side, we have strengthened cost control, and the favorable factors for cost reduction have increased. So the foundation of sound operation has been further enhanced, and we will maintain that at a reasonable level. Thank you so much. That's all for my response. Thank you. Now, let's move to the third question. The third question comes from Lin Cheng of China Securities. Thank you, management. I'm Lin Cheng from China Securities. My question is about loan growth. Heading into Q4 at present, will the loan growth for full year decrease? And how is the reserve for the good start of loan growth for next year? And after the introduction of the package of policies, will the loan growth for next year improve? For the loan growth, I'll invite Mr. Fu from Asset and Liability Management Department to answer.
The General Manager from Corporate Banking Department will answer. Thank you very much for your question. For the full year's loan growth, we expect that RMB loan growth will record around 10%, a little bit lower than the same period last year, but higher than 2 percentage points than the average for the society and higher than 5 percentage points than the GDP growth. There are multiple factors. First, macro perspective. At the end of September, the loan balance was over CNY 250 trillion. The double-digit high growth created a good environment for economic development. But as the economy transforms, the demand change of real estate markets and the risk control strengthened in LGFV, we believe based on such high base, the loan growth will be lowered. Our loan balance was over CNY 28 trillion. I think in the future, RMB loan growth will gradually decline.
The trend will be similar to that of the whole society. To maintain our support for the real economy, our loan growth will continue to be higher than the average of the whole society. Also, I hope that you can observe this issue from two sides. We adapt to the change of the social financing. Although the growth declined, the bond investment increased by 2.7 trillion, up by almost 15%. So the growth in general maintained stable. Also, I'd like to share that we have three characteristics in loan growth in the first three quarters. This is very important to the stable growth for the full year. First, the RMB loans increased by 2.12 trillion, up by 10.2%. Second, we prioritize our main business. We prioritize support for major projects. The domestic RMB corporate loans increased by 1.43 trillion, up by 6%-8%.
Loan growth in manufacturing, emerging new industries, inclusive finance, and green finance were all over 15%. The loans for personal consumption, personal business, and credit card overdraft increased by more than CNY 390 billion, up by 13.3% than the beginning of the year. For the reserve of next year, I'm Zhang Tong from Corporate Banking Department. I'd like to add that for next year, we have three points to make. I think from macroeconomic perspective, the economy will continue to recover. The long-term better performance has not changed, so we believe the new drivers will continue to be cultivated that will pave the way for the demand of loans. Second, from the national strategies, a lot of policies are being introduced, especially in recent months. We believe these can create new effective loan needs. From ICBC perspective, we see that corporate loans reserve is quite stable.
In the future, we will follow the windows of the new policies and increase our loan growth, and especially the NDRC's multiple projects, such as in the nuclear power projects. We will continue to have refined management and help at the end of next year or Q4 the growth of the loans for ICBC. Thank you. The fourth question. Then, let's invite Xu Lingyu from Bank of America Securities. Thank you so much for this great opportunity. I'm an analyst from Bank of America Securities, Xu Lingyu. And what is the overall trend of your bank's asset quality? What is the change in asset quality of real estate-related loans? And has there been any optimization of credit policy for housing-related loans? Will the recent introduction of more real estate policies lead to the masking and underestimation of real estate credit risk? Thank you so much for your question.
And now we will invite Mr. Li Duo from the Credit Management Department. Thank you so much, analyst, for your question. And for the first three quarters, the bank's credit asset quality was stable and improving with an NPL ratio of 1.35% at the end of September, down by 1 basis point from the beginning of the year and unchanged from the middle of this year. The average NPL ratio of corporate loans in domestic branches was 1.42%. So for the next step, we will continue present operational principles. In particular, we need to be aware of the whole package of policies issued by the central government, which will definitely facilitate our economic growth and the stimulation of the real estate market. I believe that with a better market environment for commercial banks, especially for ICBC and other big banks, we have a very favorable environment for the real estate market.
Actually, in recent years, this sector for the commercial banks has been the center of the attention, and we have taken a very active attitude to deal with the new changes in the real estate sector. For the first nine months, we have strengthened the disposal of the bad assets, and also we have a very adequate ECL provision. That's why by the end of September, the NPL ratio is about 5.26%, down by 11 basis points. Besides, we have followed closely the new policies regarding the real estate market, and we have witnessed the recovery of the market for the first three weeks of November for Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, and we found that the transaction deals have reached historical highs over the past 18 months. The confidence expectations of the consumers have enhanced, and also the situation for the real estate developers has also relaxed.
We believe that when commercial banks take the initiative to actively manage the real estate risks, it will create a more favorable environment. You may know we have maintained a prudent operation principle. For instance, we will have the trinity principle of the cities, districts, and projects and also the houses, and also maintained the reasonable ratio of the real estate loans of the total loans. So recently, we will continue to reasonably manage our real estate asset layout and actively promote the disposal of the NPL related to the real estate sector. Besides, you may have noticed that the regulator has issued some very favorable policies. For instance, the full classification for decline and for additional provisions, and we will promote the sound development of the real estate market by following relevant regulations. Thank you. The fifth question, please. The next question comes from Chen Junyao of Guoxin Securities.
The question is, after the introduction of the new policies, how is your mortgage loan growth? Is there a positive growth? And will the repricing of the outstanding mortgage mitigate early repayment? And what about the asset quality and the future trend? We see the increasing trend of consumption loans, operating loans, and credit card MPL ratio. What measures will you put in place to control such risks? Thank you very much. I'll invite Mr. Chen Zhaoxuan, the General Manager of the Personal Banking Department, to answer your question. Thank you very much for your concern for the personal banking business. For the multiple new policies, they are related to releasing purchase limits, down payment proportion decrease, and also the decrease of interest rates. This can help the recovery of the real estate market from the short-term results.
We have seen that the willingness of people buying houses has been recovered in some new houses, second-hand houses. We have seen more deals. For the first month after the introduction of the new policies, our personal mortgage applications and loan growth have seen an increase compared with last quarter. But as the policy was only introduced for a short time, the results appear to be observed for a longer term. In the future, as the policies continue to be implemented, as the economy continues to recover and the real estate market continues to pick up, we are confident about the positive growth of mortgage loans. In adjusting the outstanding mortgage interest rate, we have completed the adjustment of the interest rate of the outstanding mortgage. That is LPR deduct 30 basis points.
For most outstanding loans, this can lower down the burden of the interest rate payments of people, and it can also reduce the willingness for early repayment. Recently, we have seen that the amount of early repayment has decreased. We expect that as the interest rate of the outstanding mortgage compares to that of the new loans and the economy continues to improve, we believe the early repayment will be back to a reasonable level. In asset quality, since this year, ICBC's personal mortgage NPL ratio has seen some slight increase. This is in line, and this is the same for the sectoral trend. But the absolute number is still very low, and the general asset quality is quite good. The transmission of credit risk will require a process.
In short term, the NPL ratio may increase slightly, but from mid and long term, as economic development continues to be stable and people's income continues to improve, the asset quality will be stable and will be good, and for other retail loans, their asset quality shows the same trend, and that's of the whole sector. We have seen a growing trend in NPL ratio since this year, but it is still in a reasonable range. As a package of new policies continues to be implemented and the positive factors for economic growth continue to pick up, we believe that the asset quality for personal loans will continue to be manageable. Second, in the future, from three aspects, we will coordinate the development of personal loans and the management of the risks. First, we will continue to strengthen and increase the loans of personal loans.
We think at present there are still potentials for personal loan growth. When we implement the new policies, promote people's consumption, we believe this can be conducive to establishing a good environment for management of risks in personal loans. Second, we will accelerate digital drivers transformation. This year, we have introduced five transformations in the personal loans field. We will try to increase digital drivers. Our focus is to increase digital risk management capabilities, improve the standardized line of credit and risk management. We will center on ECL management, optimize onboarding model and line credit model and post-loan management model. Third, we will improve and intensify the intelligence and digitalize post-loan management. Through horizontal and vertical management, we will increase the early warning system for personal loan risks and to improve the risk management effectiveness. Thank you. The sixth question, please. Let's invite Liang Fengjie from Zheshang Securities.
Thank you so much for this great opportunity. I have a question, which is about inclusive finance. What were the investment structure and the pricing of inclusive loans in the first three quarters of this year? Recently, NFRA indicated that it will further optimize the policy of seamless loan renewal, including expanding renewal targets and adjusting the risk classification standard. What is the implementation status of seamless loan renewal and the corresponding risk of ICBC? What is the outlook for the asset quality of inclusive loans in the future? Now let's invite Tian Fenglin from the Inclusive Finance Department. Thank you so much for your question. Focusing on the high-quality development of inclusive finance, ICBC has integrated the requirements of the national strategy.
By the end of Q3, the balance of the bank's inclusive loans amounted to about 2.81 trillion RMB, with an incremental of 585.9 billion RMB, an increase of 26.3%. The share of inclusive loans in the balance and incremental for loans was further increased. The number of inclusive finance customers exceeded 2 million, an increase of nearly 40% during the year. Based on the fast growth, we mainly targeted at the science and technology innovative business manufacturing industries and the micro and small-sized enterprises to help them with expanding domestic need and industrial upgrading. For instance, we upgraded the new generation Operation Express Loans to further enrich the supply of the credit-related products and expand the coverage of our customer base. We have also explored the scenarios of the industrial chain and explored the financing solutions that are related to digital supply chain.
We also encouraged innovative products tailored to the different areas. By the end of Q3, our inclusive loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, the growth rate is much higher than other kinds of loans. So in this context of the overall interest rate adjustment, we have maintained the online development, intensive and intelligent development, focusing on solving the problems of information asymmetry and promoting the enhancement of risk prevention and control, as well as efficiency operation and management. We hope that by further lower cost and enhanced efficiency, we can increase the feasibility of inclusive finance for the first three quarters. The average interest rate of inclusive loans is about 3.37%, which is very reasonable. In terms of non-repayment, we do believe that to meet the operational needs, especially their financial needs, and stimulate their dynamism and support the real economy is very critical.
Also for the banking and other relevant financial institutions, to provide high-quality services will enhance the customer cohesiveness and optimize the structure and effectively prevent risks and also to create long-term benefits. Recently, based on the policies of the CBIRC, we have continuously provided very high-quality development. On September the 24th, the financial regulator, the NFRA, issued the circular, which is based on the previous policy and made some improvements. We implemented the policy. We will stick to risk orientation and to provide the credit and services to the businesses that have good reputation and have no bad record.
Besides, we will also, based on implementing the policies and combining the procedures of loan renewal, and continuously monitor risks and management of loans, and strengthen the review and the supervision of the whereabouts of the loans, and analyze the risks, and also enhance our early warning capabilities and to enhance high-quality development. In terms of asset quality, ICBC has stuck to online and offline integrated development and digital governance and expertise, and enhanced the full process risk control mechanism for inclusive finance, and we also strengthened the joint prevention and control from the front, middle, and back office, and also, by the end of September, our NPL ratio has maintained at a reasonable level. And mainly in the business access, we have integrated multidimensional data from both inside and outside of bank iterate and optimize the functions.
The business has monitored and has used our early warning models, as well as to identify risks in a forward-looking manner. In the normalization stage, we continue to do a good job of risk mapping and enhance the efficiency of risk prevention. Also, in the disposal and the treatment, we have expanded the channel so as to enhance the efficiency and broaden the channel of disposal. Recently, the whole package of financial policy has conveyed a very great signal to the market. We believe that it set a very great foundation for stabilized asset quality. Based on that, we will continue to promote high-quality development of Inclusive Finance and continuously enhance the intelligent management level of risk prevention and control, and consolidate the sustainable foundation of Inclusive Finance so that it will be more practical and more long-term and of high quality. Thank you again for your question.
Thank you so much, Mr. Tian. The seventh question, please. The next question comes from Xiao Feifei of CITIC Securities. Thank you very much. My question is attracting attention recently. Recently, share buyback and holding increase. Loan facilities have been gradually implemented. We've already seen several companies disclose loan credit lines granted by ICBC. Could you provide an update on the number of companies that have reached a cooperation agreement so far and the estimated loan amounts? What types and attributes of clients are the primary focus? Are there specific qualifications or scale requirements for companies seeking repurchase and holding increased loan facilities? I'll invite Mr. Zhang Jiang from the Investment Banking Department to answer your question. The listed companies have been a focus of our financial service. Our comprehensive service has been quite fully covered. PBOC, National Financial Regulatory Administration, have set the related notice.
We have followed the requirements. We have followed the principle of prioritizing internal controls and establishing systems. ICBC launched a new specialized credit product, becoming the first to establish a comprehensive framework of products, systems, and processes for repurchase and increased loan facilities. You've asked about client selection. In 2023, we followed National Financial Regulatory Administration requirements. ICBC treated listed companies across different ownership structures equally. We have approved several businesses. They can apply for their loans according to their need. You have seen some release, and we have already granted loans for the first batch of clients, and several customers have signed agreements with ICBC, and the listed companies are promoting the information disclosure according to requirements. For the business types, the loans are related to share buybacks or holding increase.
We cover main boards, New Third Board, and we support the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and also support the development of emerging industries. In the future, we will continue to implement the loans, and we will leverage our advantage in financial services when we strengthen the confidence of the market sentiment. And also, we will strengthen our financial services for the shareholders and continue to play the role for serving the real economy. Thank you. The eighth question, please. Let's invite the analyst from UBS Securities. Thank you so much for this great opportunity. I also have a question which is closely related to everyone's attention. Recently, the state announced a capital injection to large state-owned banks. What is the outlook for the scale, pace, and pricing of capital replenishment? Will there be a further increase in credit expansion after the completion of capital replenishment?
Will the capital injection have a much more impact on subsequent capital replenishment, including TLAC issuance? Will the dilution of EPS and dividend after the capital increase be absorbed by earnings growth in the medium and to the long term? Thank you so much. Thank you so much. This is related to credit management, so we will invite Fu Jie to address your question. First of all, thank you so much for your question. Let me first briefly introduce the overall situation of ICBC's capital management. In the first three quarters, we actively promoted the capital management measures for commercial banks in accordance with the general ideas of endogenous and exogenous and balanced development. Optimized capital management enhanced efficiency of capital use.
At the end of Q3, ICBC's capital adequacy ratios stood at 19.25% with core tier one and tier one capital adequacy ratio at 13.95% and 15.23%, respectively, which continued to meet a relatively good level compared with our counterparts. This is an overall picture. Regarding the scale, pace, and pricing of capital replenishment, recently, the regulator indicated that it will increase the core tier one capital of six large commercial banks and implement it in an orderly manner in accordance with the idea of advancing in an integrated manner, facing buyback and individualized plan for each bank. Now, the specifics are not clear yet, and we are still working on the relevant proposals and also had a talk with the regulators. I believe that when there are more identified and finalized content, we will timely communicate with the investors.
And then secondly, regarding the credit expansion after the completion of capital replenishment, we believe that capital injection is definitely conducive to strengthening the bank's capital strength and enhancing our credit investment capability and ability to serve the real economy. So for the next step, we will take full consideration of the policy orientation, economic growth rate, market supply and demand, and business strategies to coordinate the credit expansion efforts, prioritized to meet the financing needs of major strategic key areas and links, and further enhance the financial service capabilities. And regarding the impact of the capital injection at subsequent capital replenishment, including the marginal impact of TLAC issuance, we believe that definitely it will have some marginal impact on TLAC. However, as the amount and timing of the capital injection have not yet been determined, it's very hard to tell the extent of the impact.
However, after the plan is determined, we will reasonably arrange the pace of the issuance of capital instruments and TLAC bond in accordance with the actual capital injection and the operation situation of the capital indicators in the future. The bank will successfully achieve the first phase of TLAC target by the end of this year and will steadily push forward the second phase of initiatives and the subsequent TLAC bond issuance under the guidance of regulators and shareholders to ensure that regulatory requirements are met on schedule. Regarding EPS and dividend dilution after the capital injection, we believe that it will have the phased dilution of EPS in the short term. However, for the medium and long term, it will be conducive to the sound development of large banks, including ICBC, and the creation of a sustainable value for shareholders.
We hope that with our efforts in all aspects, with a short-term period of time, we can absorb such impact with our better performance. Thank you so much, Mr. Fu. The next question, please. The ninth question comes from Shen Juan of Huatai Securities. Thank you for the opportunity to raise questions. My question concerns fintech. My question is, what are the progress and key achievements in the ICBC development during the first three quarters of this year? Will the technology investment start impacting profitability, and will this be reflected in cost, interest margin, or lower credit costs? How does ICBC do cybersecurity management and development? Thank you very much for fintech. I'll invite the general manager of Fintech Department, Mr. Yang Longru, to answer your question. Thank you very much for your concern for fintech.
For the ECOC establishment, there have been several years since the introduction of the ICBC. We have been improving steadily. First, the clients reaching in availability, competitiveness, and the stickiness of clients. We try to improve all these aspects, and for externally, we show it in our three platforms. For example, mobile banking, ICBC e-Life, and the open banking platform. We are trying to improve and polish our systems. For example, in mobile banking, we are doing version 10. In the future, we will introduce the new version, and also, you may observe the development of Harmony OS version. We will also introduce such a version in the future, and also, we are improving the ecological rights protection and for the industrial internet and the specific industries' need. We are improving our plans. Internally, we center around the needs of our employees. We have two groups.
One is client managers, and second is the outward working employees on the counters. We improve our effectiveness and service of the financial products, and second, we are improving the office environment. For example, in outlet services, we synergize online and offline services. Our employees exceeded the number of tens of millions, so the results have been quite fruitful, and the second result is that the improvement of products and services, which can adapt to all kinds of demand and clients. For example, in corporate banking, we focus on the corporate e-banking, especially this year. We have made improvements in several aspects. Also, the inclusive finance department also mentioned the intensification and the intelligence of inclusive finance. The ICBC development also helps the improvement of inclusive finance. Also, we have a traditional advantage. For example, the custody settlement.
We enlarge our investment and expand the ICBC worldwide payment system and the clearing and the cross-border clearing system. And thirdly, for the risk management, we give full play to the advantage in risk management of ICBC. And we have corporate-level and group-level smart risk management system. This year, we will see milestones. So gradually, we will fully implement our risk management system. And also, when we adapt to the technology change, we transform from traditional model to the new model of more open so as to improve the flexibility of the system in new technology systems, especially that with AI, we have seen fruitful results and improvement. The industrial level and 100 billion level scenarios we have supported a lot and improved our products and services. These are several aspects I can give you as examples. We also put people at the center of our work.
We explore the integration of people and technology. For example, we have ITBP plan in which how technology employees can be better incorporated into business need so as to integrate and giving to full play the effectiveness of data. This is cooperation between our department and the HR department so as to make the digital chain be incorporated in all kinds of branches. We center around clients reaching and ecosystem support and the operation for the clients. We are improving such supporting system. This is my brief introduction for the ICBC. For fintech investment, this has aroused great attention from the market. Last year, ICBC's fintech investment totaled CNY 27.2 billion, including all kinds of fees, HR, the cost of salaries. But for the direction, we think the level is quite reasonable. I think the proportion of the fintech investment accounts for 3% of the total operating income.
In the large banks, this is quite an amount. The investment is used in the upgrading of equipment. Second, the development of financial services. The five major tasks require the upgrading of models and products. So this year, based on last year's investment, our daily average transaction almost reached one billion, increasing by 10% compared with last year. These all require the upgrading of equipment. And third, some new technologies and strategic layouts, in particular, AI development. You know that the cost of labor is still high, but all levels of the employees believe that AI will be conducive to the upgrading of the banking system and the driver for the development in the future. So we have made some proactive arrangements in this regard. But compared with the international banks, we can still improve ourselves. You also mentioned the results we can see.
I think the results can always be seen. ICBC's assets, for example, in recent years, increased by several trillion, but the number of employees actually decreased. From my understanding, the development of fintech is a core driver. This can show the value of the ICBC for some direct contribution. For example, last year, the digital employees, robots, the automatic process, we can calculate the workload was over 30,000 employees. We are doing some quantitative transaction, which cannot be done by humans but can be done by the technologies. These are the value contribution of the development of the ICBC. In the arrangement and system of the investment in fintech, we have a full process from the investment and the post-evaluation. We have a mechanism to assess to guarantee the effectiveness and results. For cybersecurity, in general, the challenge is a little bit high for cybersecurity.
We see the attack may be industrialized. There are also factors like geopolitical contradictions, but from the perspective of technologies, we think IT development is quite important. First, the business operation security. We need to keep the one billion transactions that can be operated stably. We can serve over hundreds of millions of customers personally and tens of millions of corporate customers. For the past years, in general, in the continuity of business operation and the support of the security, we have made some achievements, and second, for cybersecurity, we are facing several million potential attacks. For the full year, the number may be 400 million. The increase was over 20 times of the past, so the pressure is quite high, of which the most pressure comes from the global operation of ICBC.
We are 100% confident about domestic operation in China, but there's also such protection should also be expanded to other institutions in other countries. We are doing this job to put the system of early warning system and the security system to be expanded globally. And third, the data security. How can we implement the national level data security laws and regulations to increase our data security and its effectiveness? We are actively promoting such work. The classification, we have completed the required work. We will continue to strengthen our job. From the present situation, we are confident about ICBC's security system to improve it to a higher level. Thank you. Okay. So we will proceed to the 10th question. We invite Shengbo Hu from CLSA. Thank you so much for this opportunity for raising the last question. I'm Shengbo Hu from CLSA.
How about the bond investment situation and the revenue contribution in the first three quarters of this year? At the end of September, the equity market will strongly enter the seesaw between stocks and the bond has increased. How do you look forward to the performance of the bond business in the fourth quarter and next year? Thank you so much for your patience and for your attention. Now, we will invite Wang Haiwu to address your question. Thank you so much. Indeed, just as you mentioned that overall, the bond market from the beginning of this year to September, and the momentum is quite good. For the Q3, there are some changes because for the last week, there are some rebounds because of some major events. For instance, in early August, the Bank of Japan increased the interest rate that led to market fluctuation.
And also in mid-September, the Fed decreased the interest rate by 50 basis points. And also in September, the package of the financial policies was rolled out in China. We have timely adjusted our policies for the first three quarters. We have increased the income from the bond market by about CNY 10 billion. The total incremental value of the investment is over CNY 20 billion. Looking forward to Q4 and the next year in the bond business, now the name is narrowed while the monetary and the fiscal policy stabilized and gradually implemented, as well as the impact of the election in the U.S. to the overseas market. We think that the fluctuation in the bond market will increase. However, we believe that the liquidity is pretty well, and also the short-term interest rate is decreasing.
The shortage of good assets is fundamental of the bond market. So we think that the overall risk of the bond business is still under control, even if the fluctuation will be strengthened. For the next step, we will continue to implement the policies of the central government and strengthen our forward-looking measures and judgment and to adjust our policies according to the changes of market and maintain the control and the pace of our measures and also to optimize our investment strategies and to balance the income from the NIM and also from the prices and to make our bond businesses more sustainable and sound.
And also, with the current package of financial policies, we will play our role as a leader in this area and to serve the real economy and strengthen our investment in green development, innovative development, and also the investment in the key sectors and the weak sectors. And in terms of transaction, we will fulfill our role as the market maker and to enhance the flow and also the transaction and to facilitate high-quality development of interbank businesses and also to increase the contribution of bond businesses to our overall revenue. Thank you. In the interest of time, the Q3 performance briefing draws to an end. Thank you so much for your question. And also want to thank our Governor Yang. If you have any questions, feel free to contact our IR team. And that will be the end of our meeting.
I wish you all happy and healthy and all the best. Thank you so much.