will be the moderator. We have a group moderator. Let me introduce to you the very important people with us. We have Mr. Liu Jin, the governor president-elect. Also, we have Executive Vice President Wang Wei, Executive Vice President Lin Jingzhen, Executive Vice President Zheng Guoyu, and VP-elect Chen Huaiyu, and the Chief Information Officer Liu Qiuwan.
Because of the need to prevent and control the pandemic, this year we will continue to have the online session of the press release for the benefit of our investors, analysts, and media friends from home and abroad.
Let me first give the floor to our new President, Liu Jin, to introduce to us our business results last year. Later, we will have a Q&A. I will moderate the part of the Q&As with investors and analysts, while Miss Xinja will chair the Q&A session with the media friends.
We hope your friends will not replicate each other so that we can inspire more and share with each other. I know a lot of our banks recently are releasing their annual results for 2020, and I know many of our friends here are very busy writing research reports, press releases. It's not easy.
A lot of investors today, I think, will be connected to the BOC official website and mobile banking app for the live streaming. Here again, many thanks and gratitude to our friends. Ladies and gentlemen, our 2020 business annual results already have been published.
For the PPTs, you can download them from our official website, or you can look at the PPTs on the live streaming webpage. Also, I need to remind you that our financial data all conform to the rules of international financial reporting, if there are not specific different arrangements.
Now, let me give the floor to our new President, Liu Jin, to give us a highlight of our 2020 business results, the situation of developments of the business, and also priorities for the next period. You have the floor. Yes.
Thank you. Dear investors, analysts, and media friends, good afternoon. I will give you the highlights of the 2020 business results of the BOC. Last year, it was the year of enduring enterprising hardships, responding to challenges. It was the year of a better execution of our strategy. It was also a year of a bumper harvest.
Overcoming multiple difficulties and balancing the need to prevent and control pandemic and managing business development, BOC last year made a steady progress in our results, and there was further upgrading of the comprehensive competitiveness. In terms of business results, last year, our revenues were CNY 567.65 billion, up 3.21%.
Pre-provisioning profit, CNY 365.24 billion, up 3.84%. The post-tax profit, CNY 205.1 billion, up 1.59%. For the financial indicators, our net income was CNY 415.92 billion, up 6.63%. Intermediary and brokerage fees, CNY 75.55 billion, up by 2.32%. Cost-income ratio was 26.73%, down by 1.27 percentage points. There was a steady optimization of the asset structure. Total assets increased by 7.17% to CNY 24.4 trillion. The client loans were up by 8.78% to CNY 14.2 trillion.
Domestic RMB loans increase was the highest in history, while the proportion of the medium to long-term loans continued to go up. There also was a steady improvement of the liabilities. Liabilities went up by 6.96% to CNY 22.2 trillion. Domestic RMB loan deposits increments was the best in recent years. Personal deposits and corporate deposits went up by 10.69% and 7.08%. Our asset quality was stable. NPL ratio was 1.46%. Special mention balance and ratio both went down.
The provisioning coverage ratio was at a stable level. At the same time, we made better use of our inherent capital generation capability and external capital. Our CAR went up by 0.63 percentage points to 16.22%. In 2020, by enhancing execution and by stimulating vitality, responding swiftly, and achieving breakthroughs in key areas, BOC last year did a good job in terms of business management and completing the 13th Five-Year Plan.
Thus, we made new contributions to serving the tangible economy and the national strategies. The domestic RMB loans went up by 12%. More loans went to key regions and cities. For the Beijing-Tianjin, Hebei, and Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta regions, loans to them went up by 16.21%. We focus more on two new and one heavy industries, advanced manufacturing, consumption, digital economy, green finance.
Loans to advanced manufacturing went up by 20%. We also supported foreign trade and FDI international settlements were $5.75 trillion, up by 10.68%. We are the market leader in terms of the international settlements market share among domestic institutes, and also we are the leader in terms of cross-border guarantees. Second, our CSR.
After the outbreak of the pandemic, BOC provided more financial anti-pandemic products and services, such as specialized favorable loans to the affected businesses, and also better financial financing settlements and online services to the affected businesses. We also provided more loans to green finance, especially in the areas of clean energy, environmental protection, energy protection, green transport.
The proportion going to green finance increased. We also greatly supported poverty alleviation and the loans for that purpose increased. We helped four counties in Shanxi and 1,034 villages in the country to go out of poverty.
Thirdly, we also carry out comprehensive reforms. We carry out more than 50 major reform programs with more than 200 reform objectives, and there were breakthroughs in key regions and areas. In terms of personal finance, corporate finance, asset liability management, globalized development, comprehensive operation, and research assistance, we made significant reform breakthroughs.
We also made steady progress in the reforms of the enterprise-level architecture, smart operations, outlet transformation, better governance, comprehensive risk management. We also increased our governance capability and enhanced vocational training and corporate culture development. Fourthly, business transformation. In terms of the personal finance architecture reform, the reform was very effective, and there was in-depth progress of the full process digitalization transformation. Our business model tries to cover more clients, AUM.
In terms of our corporate finance, the foundation was further strengthened, and there was a steady progress of corporate deposits and loan structure, and there was a steady progress of global trading banking platform development. We are still the leader in terms of the foreign currency trading and settlements, and also we are the leader in terms of the cross-border custody and underwriting for Panda Bonds.
Fifthly, globalized comprehensive business development. That is the DNA of BOC. We have already covered 61 countries and regions with a more intensified and regionalized management. We are comparable to international counterparts in terms of our global network. Also, we are the number one among Chinese banks in terms of the share of the profits from overseas business. We are number one in terms of cross-border RMB business.
We also take the lead in terms of syndicate loans, mergers, acquisitions, and other high-end structural financing. We also have enhanced the synergies and the connectivities between the different parts of our business. We continue to be the leader in terms of the number of operational licenses we have got. Sixthly, more technological innovation. We continued last year to promote enterprise-level architectural development.
We put more emphasis upon the business digitalization, scenario equalization, and technological platform development. Four strategic scenarios made more progress in terms of cross-border education, sport, and the elderly people services. As a result, we have more access and service capabilities for our clients.
We also have upgraded our mobile banking and online services. Seventhly, risk compliance and management. We have intensified asset quality monitoring. We have carried out multiple rounds of risk screening to better dispose of and collect NPLs.
The corporate credit authorization management system reform has made new progress. We also did a great job last year in terms of AML and sanction compliance. In terms of the liquidity risk, market risks, and other indicators, we have stable operations. This year is the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and we will continue to make steady progress by overcoming the new challenges. We will do the following.
First, we will continue to serve tangible economy and focus upon supply-side structural reforms. We will continue to support the development of fintech, inclusive financing, green finance Wealth management, cross-border financing, consumption financing, and county-level financing.
Second, we invest more in key regions and markets so as to improve competitiveness and have connected developments. Thirdly, we will continue to strengthen our advantages in terms of globalized and comprehensive services. Firstly, more digitalization.
We will continue to push forward the progress of enterprise-level architectural development, scenario development, data governance, smart operations, et cetera. Fifthly, continue to have a comprehensive risk management. Ladies and gentlemen, on the basis of completing the objectives of the last round of strategic development, we now usher in a new year to make even more progress in building BOC a world-class modern banking group.
We will stick to President Xi Jinping's thinking about socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. We will continue to make domestic commercial banking as the mainstay of our business while we continue to grow our globalized and comprehensive banking and financial services.
We will revitalize our energy, respond swiftly, and achieve breakthroughs in key regions and areas so that we can make greater values to shareholders, clients, employees, and the whole society.
Thank you. Now we go into the Q&As. We will have first the Q&As from the investors and analysts. For the interest of time, I think each should ask just one question. Before that, please identify yourself. Now we will have the first question. Yes. Oh, now please just wait and answer me first as I have a vote, and then I will know who will ask the first question. Already, the first question.
Thank you. I am from Morgan Stanley. My name is Shuran. I have a question which is quite macro, because after the end of the Two Sessions, we have witnessed the 14th Five-Year Plan. I think that we have new development goals. As a commercial bank, I would like to ask from BOC's perspective, what is your plan to support the 14th Five-Year Plan implementation? Also, during the process, what kind of role will BOC play, and how do you plan your business? Thank you.
Thank you, Shuran from Morgan Stanley. Thank you very much for your question. This is a very good question with a very strategic view. Even though our President Liu Jin just gave us the introduction, now I would like to give the floor to Mr. Liu to answer the first question, please. The floor is yours.
Thank you, my friend from Morgan Stanley. It is a long time that I have not done business directly with Morgan Stanley, but our contact is continuous. I participated in your 20th anniversary of the business operation in China. Thank you for your question. We know that 14th Five-Year Plan indicates our new century goal implementation. This is the first of five years for us to start our plan.
In the historical level, as a big commercial bank of China, we pay high attention to the top design. From last year on, we started our formulation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for Bank of China. A few days, our board meeting has approved BOC's 14th Five-Year Plan. That is the draft. We are now in the process of revising our 14th Five-Year Plan draft.
Generally speaking, in terms of the vision for BOC, we will build a first-class modern banking group. We have one body, two wings strategy. During the 14th Five-Year Plan, we will focus on seven major areas. In terms of the developmental strategy, we will focus more on the digital transformation and risk prevention and management.
Talking about the 14th Five-Year Plan of China and BOC's development, there are some keywords I would like to use to answer your question. First one, as I mentioned, is one body, two wings. That is our strategy for BOC, meaning that we will just serve the new developmental structure and we will build a new era first-class modern bank.
We hope that we could have a more optimized comprehensive provision with better quality, better efficiency, better control of risks, and bigger influence, as well as a better environment for ourselves to develop.
We would like to become a bank connecting domestic and international circulation, to support our dual circulation strategy of China. Coupled with the uniqueness of BOC, we have this one body, two wings strategy. The one body is that we will focus on our commercial banks business. That is the main focus, and we will just in a steadily manner to contribute the domestic business to our growth.
With the two wings, the first one is the BOC's globalization. The second one is about our comprehensive business provision capability. We will play the comparative advantage of BOC to serve our new developmental strategy to have more in-depth development and reform for the future development of BOC. At the same time, we will upgrade our comprehensive model of development. We will introduce more diversified strategies for the future development of BOC.
That is, the one body is the business within China, that is the main focus. With the two wings, globalization and comprehensive business provision, they are going to support the main development of our main body, that is the commercial business within China. This strategy is determined based on our perception towards the international and domestic situation.
We would like to meet the demands of Chinese people for a better life. We have seven areas. The first one is the cross-border development. When China expand our opening up to a deeper level, we would like to play a better role, in particular, using our strengths of a globalized business provision.
The second one is what we call science-based financial development. We will integrate it into our national development strategy to support the upgrading of manufacturing industry. The third one is the inclusive financing development.
We will try to help those small and medium-sized enterprises resolve their access to finance and also to make financing for them more affordable. The fourth one is about the carbon neutrality and carbon peaking strategy. We will step into a greener transformation and developmental road. The fifth one is to enhance our wealth financing. We will try to provide more financial products, cater for the household needs and the people's demands when we step into the new era.
The sixth one is the consumption-based financing. We will try to meet the demands of the upgrading of the consumption of consumers. We will have more serve the high-quality domestic market. The seventh one is to meet the demands of county-based development. You may ask what is the link between BOC as a national big bank with the county level development?
I would like to give you an introduction of one of our subsidiaries, which has more than 120 branches at the county level. We have the basic structure of the county level financial service provision. BOC will participate actively into the county level and the rural development. In particular, we would like to help those, the revitalization strategy of the rural China.
In particular, in recent years, we work with some of the organizations which focus on the rural development, agriculture development, and big data development. There are also high-tech companies.
We want to connect our financial service with the big data produced by those high-tech companies, and then to support the development of the rural China and also the county level villages. These are the seven major areas for us to develop in the future.
If you are asking about the main strategy, there are two. The first one is the digitalization transformation. The second one is the risk management. We are now stepping into the digital era. During the 14th Five-Year Plan, BOC will, based on our structure and framework, and also sticking to our national strategy of the one body, two wings, we will just try to support the digitalization transformation as well as the risk prevention.
We will use the cloud computing strategy as well as the blockchain technologies to provide better products and to share our products. We will have the optimization of our products. Also, we will try to reduce the burden of the staff working for BOC. Now we are facing the mega change of the world. BOC is also facing great challenge.
As for the second strategy, that is to enhance our overall risk management control. During the 14th Five-Year Plan, we will stick to the baseline-based management mindset. We will avoid the big risk events. We will use the information to improve the enterprise-based risk management control. We will try to enhance our capacity to address the risk in the future.
Also, we will try to improve our capacity and prevention and resolution of the major risk events. In particular, in today's world, we are facing more complicated international economic and social situation. BOC will stick to our principle. We have the salient feature of the globalized bank. We will just control the risk in these kind of areas, as I mentioned. Also, these are the major tasks for us.
Talking about the digitalization-based risk management, we will use the fintech technology to build our risk prevention framework and to enhance BOC's compatibility. I hope I answered your question.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Liu. Now let's come to the second question. The second journalist, please. The floor is yours. You can ask the question.
Hi, thank you for giving me this opportunity. I'm from CITIC Securities. I'm the analyst. I have a question about the lending policy. I'd like to ask you the question, in 2020, BOC has good growth of the lending business and to support our real economic development.
I'd like to ask you about the 2020 lending business. Also, 2021 has witnessed a continuous recovery of the economy. I'd like to know about your plan for the corporate financing needs, and how do you manage the scale and pace of the lending business of BOC for 2021?
Thank you very much. This is a very professional question. I'd like to give the floor to Mr. Lin to give you the answer. Please, Mr. Lin, the floor is yours. Thank you.
Thank you for your question. In 2020, BOC implemented the strategy set by our central government and State Council. We stick to the new developmental idea, and also we try to, in a steady manner, improve our business operation. We also stick to the supply-side reform as a major base for our implementation of the strategy to support the prevention of COVID-19, as well as the recovery of the economy and try to serve the real economy.
Domestically, last year, we have witnessed CNY 1.2039 trillion of the domestic loans, and that is the historical high. We also have CNY 153.7 billion increase, up 11.99%. The major area for the lending business has given us the optimized structure of the credit. The second one is to try to win this battle against the COVID-19.
In an overall manner, we try to support the prevention, control of COVID-19, as well as the recovery. We implemented the special lending for the people who participated in the combating of COVID-19. The overall lending, which is CNY 21.2 billion. We provided loans to 834 key enterprises for the COVID-19 prevention, the control. We also provided CNY 11.693 billion preference loans to more than 485 local COVID-19 prevention key enterprises.
We also made full use of this CNY 200 billion special loans to support the prevention and control of COVID-19. We also ensured the enterprises the stable operation, and also we provided contingency service for the enterprises and branches in Hubei province and other overseas branches. We also implemented 13 measures to stabilize our trade-related business operation. We also have provided CNY 385 billion trade finance and to support the CIIE and also other exhibitions implementation.
We have also developed some new innovation for the product provision to facilitate the lending and borrowing of the enterprises. We also try to support the supply-side reform. We support the private enterprises development. Compared with the previous years, the private enterprises lending, the balance reaches CNY 125.7 billion. We try to support the high-end enterprises development. Compared with last year, the balance has increased by CNY 117.9 billion. We also support what we call the two new and one major enterprises development.
Compared with the previous years, the balance increased by CNY 248.8 billion. We also support the poverty alleviation battle. The balance has been increased by 26.61% compared with the previous years. We actively implement green lending development, and we try to support the silver economy-based financing, try to support the aging population support program financing.
We have supported our Winter Olympic Games financing needs. We have built our BOC brand in the support of these activities and campaigns. Thirdly, we support the major area strategic development.
We support integrated development of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei province by signing the comprehensive strategic collaborative agreement with the local government. We have also established the village-based banks by selecting Xiong'an New Area as the first location for that.
We support integrated development of Yangtze River Delta area. We also support development of Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong Great Bay development to support the demonstration area in Shenzhen with Chinese socialist characteristics. We support the construction of freight trade port in Hainan province, and we give our support to the comprehensive financial service plan to support the free trade port construction in Hainan province.
Number 4, to give full play our most advantageous businesses, we try to stabilize our overseas business and to guarantee balanced asset and liability development. We strengthen the overseas management, improve the global customer service system, consolidate structural finance service.
Number 5 is to support the small and micro-sized enterprises. We try to intensify evaluation and guarantee resource allocation to guide domestic institutions to improve the proportion of inclusive finance business. We try to optimize the credit structure by utilizing internet big data technology.
We launch the online finance product, a kind of inclusive finance credit type of credit online, which is targeted at small and micro-size businesses. We also try to apply science and technology, and try to give our support to scientific and technological enterprises.
We try to replicate and promote the fintech model represented by Zhongguancun Model, and to provide capital support for the small, medium-sized, scientific, technological, and innovative enterprises. We have organized matching activities, altogether 11 cross-border matching activities, for the small, medium-sized, and the micro-sized scientific innovative enterprises.
Early 2021, given the seasonal requirement and economic recovery, the appropriate loan requirement has been increasing. At the present, credit projects are mainly concentrated in transportation, infrastructure, and manufacture. The quality of the project are pretty good. We also focus on optimization adjustment of credit structure. We give our support to major areas.
We try to promote original collaboration in these projects, and we try to support those emerging industries and the manufacture sector by relying on science, technology, and innovation. We try to rejuvenate urban or rural development by using comprehensive operational services, and by digging some green credit businesses.
Thank you very much for your response. Very comprehensive and insightful. The next question, please . Thank you.
Thank you. The question is related to the personal finance. We have a lot of reforms in personal finance, organizational structure, operational mindset, and development models have been improved a lot. What are the strategies for reforms for the personal finance parties? The strategic difference and the targets of personal finance in our group, and what business areas need to be paid attention to and looked forward to by the market?
This is a very good question. Investors, analysts, and media friends pay a lot of attention to personal finance business. They pay more attention to them than our customers. Mr. Zhang, the Vice President of BOC, is going to answer this question.
Thank you very much for your question. 2020 is the first complete operational year after the launch of the reform for our personal finance business. We bring into full play our organizational reform, and we have fully optimized our organizational structure, operational mindset, development models, as well as operational indexes. So a good result has been scored. Number 1, the size is growing rapidly, hitting a historical high.
The overall personal accounts number reached 477 million, and there are altogether 300 million accounts of personal active accounts. At group level, the overall financial asset size of a personal account exceeded CNY 10 trillion, up 9.9%, and personal credit business size exceeded CNY 5.58 trillion, up 10.6%. The efficiency has been very obvious. The operational revenue of personal finance business at a group level increased about 18.66%, contributing 5% more to the revenue of the group.
The domestic commercial banks revenue proportion reached 66.55%, contributing 7% more. Personal finance business profit growth rate stood at 22%, contributing 9% more year on year. The financial management revenue grew by 42%. Mid and the customer grow faster than that of the basic customers. The private banking customers and financial assets grew by more than 15%. Number 3 is digital transformation has been accelerated.
We have altogether 211 million mobile banking accounts with transaction value reaching about CNY 32.28 trillion. The mobile banking accounts takes up more than 66% of valid personal accounts. We have a closed loop echo service system connecting G and B and T and the customer. We have set up 106 scenarios. We have the online smart marketing management platform in place. We have a smart marketing platform. We have a closed loop database, big data-based marketing system.
We have smart calling, smart customer service. We have the wealth management e-assistance, which has been widely applied to our business. We have a very important product that is a BOC Smart Investment. This is a very interesting, very important product. Everything that's been launched to the market. The average yield ratio stood at 34.91%. You can try it. It's very effective.
We have the e-Loan, which has been put online, enjoying fast growth. We have a smart risk control platform. We have the smart management platform, like relying on these operational management decisions. We have a smart operational platform, to realize no manpower involved or less manpower involved business model. Number 4, to strengthen the construction of head office and to gradually delegating the power to the branches if needed.
In that way, we can have a vertical and horizontal collaborative system between headquarters and branches to enlarge the cohesion among them. As a next step, the personal finance business will try to serve the real economy and try to improve its quality and to bring their comprehensive business and globalization as advantage into full play to be more digitalized, light asset, and more professional.
To make it more specific, number 1, our personal business finance will be more professional to create a value bank, to increase the overall financial asset size, to increase the proportion of investment type of financial asset, to optimize the deposit structure. We will also have a steady increase of house loans, mortgage loans, to accelerate the development of inclusive finance and consumer finance. We will give priority to foreign exchange business, and we will also optimize the payment and settlement business.
Number two is to see digitalization and to create a smart banking, to provide the professional product service and to have a more precise marketing capability, to make our back office highly efficient and to strengthen smart risk control.
Number three is to open even wider and to have a platform of banking business, to make our business and services interconnected, to have our channel resources integrated, and to open up our proprietary channel platform to set up a scenario economy ecology, and to integrate productive resources and to integrate group resources.
Number four is to be more comprehensive and to use the comprehensive operation platform as a way to empower our commercial banking retail business. Number five is to be more globalized and to set up to be the cross-border financial banks of the first choice.
We will focus on Macau and Hong Kong, as well as some of the South Asia-Pacific cities and countries. We focus on private platform construction in Asia Pacific, and to steadily proceed with overseas personal finance business. We will also try to support the Winter Olympic Games in 2020, and to enhance our brand effect as the bank supporting both Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
Well, this is a very good question. It is of common interest not only for investors, but also for customers and media friends. You are warmly welcome to open your account at our outlet and to enjoy the passion and good service of BOC.
The next question, please.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I am from Sunshine Insurance Group. My question is that in 2020, the asset quality and asset cost has suffered some fluctuations. With the recovery of the national economy and epidemic has been effectively controlled, I think the pressure on the asset quality has been lightened. Would you please estimate the future trend of all these indicators? What about the quality and the credit cost for this year, and what are the potential risks?
Thank you for your question. I can see you really know the risk business very well. Every time you ask the risk related question, also very good and a typical question. I will ask our Vice President Chen to answer. Yes.
Thank you. The friends from Sunshine Insurance Group. Yes, in 2020, because of the pandemic, BOC NPLs increased by a little bit. Especially NPLs from the overseas branches, their NPLs significantly went up. For the domestic new NPLs, they mainly came from real estate manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing. For the overseas NPLs, they came from real estate, aviation, and petrochemicals.
For the Chinese economy, already has been recovering and BOC has done a better job in terms of collection and disposal. So in the last quarter last year, already our asset quality had a marginal improvement. The NPL ratio and NPL balance went down as compared with the third quarter. By the end of last year, our NPL balance was CNY 272.73 billion, up by CNY 29.038 billion. But down by CNY 4.154 billion compared with Q3.
NPL ratio 1.46%, up by 0.09 percentage points over the end of 2019. But down by 0.02 percentage points over Q3. For the special mention loans balance, it was CNY 264.594 billion, down by CNY 24.72 billion. Special mentions proportion was 1.87%, down by 0.35 percentage points. Also, the difference between overviews and NPLs was due negative. The provisioning was sufficient, and the provision coverage ratio was 177.84%.
Looking into 2021 with a sufficient provisioning and risk management capability, and with recovery of the Chinese economy, we believe our loan asset risk is controllable. But as the manager policy is slightly tightening up, and we also need to withdraw from those some favorable policies to affected small businesses. The delayed impacts of the pandemic, there will still be some pressure upon our asset quality, especially in the following.
First, for those clients for whom we have offered grace periods of paying principal and interest, some still have difficulties in their business development, so maybe they could hardly pay. Also, for some local governments, they also have budget difficulties. So for the local government debt and also local SOE debts and some regional risks, we should pay attention to that.
Third, the export companies and also private companies at weak links of the supply chains, they might be squeezed by the up and midstreams, and their profits might be in trouble. In some European countries, maybe they are having a third wave of the pandemic. Also globally, there are still uncertainties of the global economy. For the BOC overseas loans, we have many of them. Due to the external environment mentioned, there is still some pressure upon the asset quality for overseas branches.
But I don't think we will repeat the story last year, that we will not have such a significant increase of the overseas NPLs. Then by the end of last year, BOC offered delayed payments of principal of CNY 140 billion to small and micro businesses and enterprises along the international value trade. The grace periods to delay the interest payments was CNY 4.9 billion.
At the same time, we also have better carry out due diligence of risk screening of those businesses affected by the pandemic. Currently, for the clients receiving the grace period of paying interest or principal money, their risk is still controllable. For the new year, we will, on the one hand, make use of the beginning year of the 14th Five-Year Plan for real estate, excessive capacities, and the local government-related business sectors. They are the key of our risk warning.
Also, we will have better monitoring and early alert against risks. We will also strengthen collection and the disposal of the overdues and the NPLs, and we will also increase the efficiency and effectiveness of NPL disposal and recollection. BOC has diversified and a lot of clients. We will make more use of a restructuring of the debt. We will dynamically and conservatively assess the risks, and we will also increase the provisions.
Fifthly, we will also have more digital transformation of the credit risk so that we'll be more sensitive and more speedy reacting to risks. So upon the whole, by taking these measures, BOC will take a targeted approach to credit risks, and we will have differentiated policies for different levels of risks and different categories of risky assets. We believe our asset quality, credit quality in this year will be stable while turning for the better. Thank you.
Maybe can I cut in? Mr. Mei?
Oh, yes.
Thank you. Our new president would like to have some additional comments. Just now, VP Chen already gave you a review of the asset quality last year, and he also looked forward to the future. I can have some follow-up comments. As the chairperson has introduced, I have just been to BOC for one month, the new president. From the media, you already know where I worked before.
Actually, I have worked for multiple financial organizations in the past years, and I often deal with NPLs and asset quality management. I think I also have a lot of experience. For a commercial bank, the core business is credit. The management of credit is the same as the management of the risk. As long as you offer loans to someone, you will have risks.
But most importantly, for the industries, for the clients, for the default capability, we should have a good analysis so that NPLs are still controlled within a reasonable range. At the same time, we shall also continue to innovate and to upgrade. In this process, as a commercial bank, we must comply with the regulatory requirements. We must comply with the country's fiscal and monetary policies.
We must comply with the laws and regulations, and we should also run through the necessary legal procedures and formalities. In fact, in that way, the timetable of running through some legal procedures and the formalities is beyond our control. There could be some seasonal or cyclical volatilities of our NPL or NPL ratio. There are some times that the NPL numbers look too high, not very good.
But as long as they're still controlled within a reasonable range, I don't think the market should be excessively worried. I don't think some cyclical or seasonal volatilities of the NPLs will be very detrimental to the long-term development prospect of our bank. What is the reasonable range?
I think if you look at our track records, if you also look at the NPL numbers of our peer banks, you already have the answer in your heart. Especially for BOC. We are a state-owned controlling bank. If you look at our shareholder structure, if you look at the resumes of the management team, I think you should feel confident that BOC is not likely to have systematic risks.
VP Chen just now said that at the end of last year, our NPL ratio, in both NPL ratio and the balance increased as compared with the end of 2019, but went down as compared with Q3. That in Q4, we already made improvements. It was at 1.46% of NPL ratio at the end of last year. The balance also increased. But, ladies and gentlemen, in Q1, BOC has intensified the disposal of the NPLs.
From the second half of last year, we already began to take some additional risk management control measures, which are now effective. So in terms of NPL ratio and NPL balance, both, I think, will continue to go down this year. In Q1, there might even be some significant reductions, for example, by 1 or even 2 percentage points. But that doesn't mean that everything is okay and we don't need to worry. Not necessarily.
When the economy is still recovering from the pandemic, there are still some localized risks and uncertainties. These localized risks and uncertainties might one day still spur up our NPL numbers. So there might be volatility. So it's fully normal. Ladies and gentlemen, in the new year, as VP Chen already has introduced to you, what will we do? On the one hand, BOC will continue to intensify the disposal of the NPLs according to the regulatory requirements.
We will make full use of the government policies for NPLs. We will also innovate in terms of the modalities for the batch transfer and also single client NPL transfer. We will do a better job. That is to say, we will intensify the disposal of NPLs, resolution of NPLs.
The second, we will intensify the monitoring of the potential risky clients, especially those in real estate and civil aviation, as they are heavily affected by the pandemic. We will regularly update upon their situation. And for the small and the micro businesses affected by the pandemic, we will also intensify monitoring.
We will also keep an eye upon the pandemic situation in other countries to do a better job of the management of the NPL balance. During the pandemic, the government allowed a grace period of paying principal and interest from the affected businesses, and that policy will be effective until the end of 2021. Actually, that is an opportunity for BOC. Well, of course, it doesn't mean that suddenly the risks are all gone, and you have no more worries.
At the end of the 2021, maybe some small or the micro businesses are unwilling or still unable to repay principals or repay interests. In that way, they still represent risks to us. According to the regulatory requirements, we will be prepared in advance. That's before the end of 2021, so we can swiftly handle the risks. So I make the additional remarks so that for our NPLs, especially NPL ratio, you should have a more balanced interpretation.
Otherwise, sometimes some exaggerated reports might do damage to market sentiments. As we all know, for NPL balance and NPL ratio, they always are moving, are changing. But every year, from our investors or from our analysts, well, from January the 1st to December the 31st, you all want a flat line or always a declining curve of those numbers. No. They are not always going to remain flat.
They are not going to go down always. We will do our homework. We will do a better job of risk prevention management control. Dear friends, please give us more understanding and also give us more objective analysis and interpretation. It is our common responsibility to stabilize the market's confidence.
Yes. Many thanks to President Liu. He answered off the cuff. We could see that as our friends make very good questions, our management team also gives very good answers. It shows BOC is so sincere to investors, analysts, and to media friends. We are very open-minded.
So much for this session of Q&A with the investors and analysts. According to regulatory requirements, our press release. Actually, before the press release, we also provided conveniences to the small investors taking part in our meeting.
Some investors also sent emails to us asking some important questions, and some even made very good business proposals to us. Upon our mobile phone banking live streaming room and chat room, some friends are asking very good questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think for our President Liu's introduction of last year's results and for the previous round of Q&A, a lot of the small investors' questions already are well addressed. Here I need to explain one more thing. It is very important.
The board today already approved our 2020 profit distribution plan. That for 10 shares, there will be a pre-tax profit distribution of CNY 1.97 to common stockholders. The ratio of the dividend distribution is 30% per 10 shares. We have CNY 0.06 increase, up 3.14%, providing very good dividend return for the shareholders.
As for the plan for the distribution, after the approval of this, we will implement this plan. In recent years, BOC has steady development, and we also have higher dividend distribution level.
I hope you actively invest in BOC. Due to the time limit, I close the part I moderate. Next, I would like to invite new speaker, Mr. Jia Tianbing, Director of the BOC Office, to moderate the next session. Please, Mr. Jia, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Mr. Mei. My dear friends from media, investors, analysts, good afternoon. I am the new speaker as well as the office chief of BOC. I am very glad to use this online style to discuss with you through this, our annual release of the financial report. I also would like to extend my thanks to the friends from China and also from the international fields to thank you for your support.
Now let us come to the Q&A session. As we have many friends online, please ask only one question, then we could have more questions being asked, and we can give other people more opportunities. I would like to invite our first speaker from the media, please. [Non-English content] Okay. Now you can ask your question. Thank you.
Thank you. I am from the CCTV English. My name is Wang Shun. My question is about our BOC strategy. You mentioned there is one body, two wings. Apart from the traditional business, you are also going to develop the comprehensive business, which is at the very important position. Could you please introduce the further plan for the promotion of the comprehensive business development in BOC, and is that part going to be the growth point of BOC strategy?
Thank you. We know one body, two wings are the major strategy for BOC during the past year, which is quite memorable for our people. We actually have great achievements for our one body, two wings strategy, in particular for the comprehensive business development of BOC. Now I would like to give the floor to Executive Vice President Wang Wei to give you the answer.
Thank you. Thank you for your question, and thank you very much for your care about the business of BOC. BOC tried to build this, the one body, two wings strategy, as our future strategic plan, which is focused on the domestic commercial bank business as well as the globalized and comprehensive business development.
I should say 2020 has witnessed the increase of quality as well as the efficiency of our operation in BOC, and in terms of the operating revenue is CNY 15.55 billion, 16.11% up compared to the previous years, which is also faster than the group operating revenue. Thanks to the following strategy.
The first one is our comprehensive business distribution. Last year, BOC Financial Leasing Co Ltd in Chongqing has been registered and established. That is our very first financing leasing company of the big commercial banks in China, in the western area. We also have the BOC Fullerton Community Bank, which opened in Xiong'an Area. That is also the first batch of banks, which is belonging to the community-based bank.
It also starts our investment management business. Fullerton Community Bank is the first investment-oriented bank at the community level. We also have the Amity BOC got listed in the Shanghai Newport area. That is the very first joint venture wealth management company. Last year, BOC Securities got listed successfully. We also played the leading role for China's National Green Development Fund.
Meaning BOC has established our comprehensive business covering the credit market, currency market, and we also try to support the economic development. The second one is that we built this management framework for the comprehensive business development. We first established our leader group for the comprehensive business operation. We also have the coordinating committee mechanism.
We have implemented a series of methods to support this comprehensive business operating. We actually have the full good eight pillar strategy to support the comprehensive business operation in BOC.
The third one is to improve our corporate governance efficiency. We have established this long-term governance mechanism, and we optimize the board of directors committee as well as the supervisory committees, and we try to improve their efficiency of management.
And we also have the incentive mechanisms to support and motivate the board of directors as well as the committee members of the supervisory committee to promote the management of our business. And we also try to implement the regulatory requirements to have a steady development.
The fourth one is to try to implement our business coordinating system. And we have established more than 40 joint mechanism for the management in more than 40 banks in China. And we have many different methods to support the implementation of major projects. And in Shenzhen, we also try to see the new business model combining the investment and lending business.
In 2021, we will play the better role of this comprehensive business operating, try to realize the high quality development, becoming the value creator of the group as well as the pioneer for new function of BOC in terms of the supply of financial services as well as the explorer for the better mechanism to support our business development. And also we try to meet the demands of the diversified comprehensive financial demands.
We will try to deepen our supply funds reform, try to enrich our products to make it more diversified, and also to develop this multi-tier capital market and to improve the direct investment ratio thus to provide the strategic opportunities for the group's comprehensive business development. We will also serve the real economy, serve the people's Calling for better life demands, as well as the serving the BOC's group strategy for a comprehensive development.
The second one is that we will have a clearer position to improve our profit contribution as a very important component of the One Body Two Wing strategy. We will try to deepening and clarify our position during the 14th Five-Year Plan.
We will have a clear goal, and we will have also a comprehensive supporting systems to implement our goal of comprehensive business development, to make our development and growth high quality, and also to try to have a differentiated competitive advantage and to try to support the real economic development in China.
The third one is to make use of this new development structure to realize our high quality development, facing these new opportunities proposed by our domestic and international circulation. We will focus on our 14th development plan, as well as the developing our major tasks for BOC.
For example, we will make better use of the BOC consumption financing, Fullerton Community Bank, as well as other investment banking license to have a better development and also to have better development in the fintech and inclusive financing, green financing, and cross-border financing. Thank you.
Thank you. Now let's welcome the next journalist. You may ask your question directly.
Thank you. My name is Tiansini. I would like to ask a question about the globalization. I know that BOC has a very high level of globalized business operating. So I would like to ask you, what is your view about the globalization in the future? In particular, with China's high quality open-up policy, how do you improve the quality of your operation in the overseas market and consolidate your core competitiveness? Thank you.
With this new structure of globalization, BOC has the very advanced development of globalized business. Next, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Chen Huaiyu, Vice President, to answer your question, because Mr. Chen Huaiyu has worked in the overseas branches in the past. So I would like to give the floor to Mr. Chen, please.
Thank you for your question. I should say currently, we are facing a mega change of the world situation. We have the momentum of globalization. We have the changes of the global governance rules and also the way of cooperation.
But generally speaking, we are still in this mega trend of globalization. We are still facing a lot of new challenges and opportunities because of this globalization, for Chinese economy is developed quite steadily and with a positive trend for future development. Also in the long run, we have this positive development.
As predicted, for a long run, China will become the major economy experiencing the fastest economic growth. With this dual circulation, international circulation and also the domestic circulation reinforcing with each other, we will have this high quality development.
Meaning, we will focus on the, what we call, the high quality introduced in and high quality going global strategy for our customers. We have, for example, Greater Bay Area free trade zones and free trade port areas.
So we will try to provide more services for the facilitation of these opening accounts services, as well as expanding our financial two-direction opening and try to build these markets to facilitate the domestic and international customers. At the same time, we will build this new mutually benefit cooperation relationship based on Chinese RMB as the RMB internationalization process. Also, this is our new opportunities.
Also, we are going to participate in this RCEP as well as the CAI international corporation to expand our business arena for BOC in the future. BOC starts our cross-border business quite early. We have more than 100 years development tradition, and also overseas business accounts a very high percentage of the group's business.
Now we have covered 62 countries and regions with our business and also in the major business areas, for example, syndicated lending, the underwriting of the bonds. We have relative competitive advantage and also in the Asian Pacific region and syndicated business development, we ranked number 1 for 15 years. So with the globalization process, we are stepping into the new era of our development.
During the 14th Five-Year Plan, BOC will show that our global bank corporate responsibility and focusing on Chinese main market, we will serve this dual circulation strategy and structure, and we will serve our customers' global demands of their business development, and we will implement our One Body Two Wings group strategy.
The third one is that we will try to develop our overseas banks governance foundation. We will try to facilitate differentiated operation and try to build the regional center for the development. We also will have the tailor-made management methods for the overseas branches and to determine their goal for their operation.
The fourth one is to enhance the risk management and risk prevention. Number five is to stick to the high quality development momentum, try to improve the quality and efficiency of overseas operating, and also in terms of the allocation of resources, we will invest more into those low-risk area and also in the area with high return of investment. And we will also maintain the globalized business in terms of accounts for the business of the group. Thank you.
[Non-English content] profitability, efficiency investment and financial risk preventions and control, what are the priorities and what is your plan i the future?
Yes, you are right. We will continue paying a lot of attention to the continuous investment in infrastructure of science and technology, and digital transformation. I would like to invite Chief Information Officer Mr. Liu Qiuwan to respond to your question. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. I will give my thanks to our media friends for your concern about the scientific and technological development applications in our bank. In 2020, BOC has unswervingly proceeded with its scientific and technological innovation strategy, and our infrastructure has been enhanced a lot. Our capability of innovations for science and technology has been improved. We have been working hard on much openness and innovative agility, which are the features of digital banking.
We have fully demonstrated our capability of scientific innovation over the past year when the epidemic broke out, particularly overseas. Number one, scientific innovation transformation has been facilitated. We have set up the BOC Financial Technology Co Ltd and head office level innovation research and development base to explore the scientific mechanisms as well as the new models for productive innovation.
In Singapore, we have our innovation R&D center, while in Xiong'an, in Suzhou and other domestic cities, we have established our own innovation R&D center. So we have had an overall layout of the innovation by relying on science and technology. In China, we have set up new technology laboratories, and we have explored the collaboration among industries, universities, R&D institutes, as innovative enterprises.
So our capability of innovation through science and technology has been improving a lot. The number of patents that we've applied annually has increased year -on -year, leading the industry in terms of the amount of the patents as well as the number of the application of the patents.
Number two is that we are proceeding with the technical structural transformation. We have completed the layout of infrastructure in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hefei, and in Inner Mongolia.
We have our production center and also the applied disaster recovery and also distributed cloud center infrastructure. We have applied SRv6, the backbone network, and this is a good example for our internet financial peers domestically. We have constructed IaaS, PaaS, and container platform among other technologies and platforms in the Inner Mongolia and Hefei cloud center. We are setting up platforms for application of these new technologies, and we are exploring application of SaaS.
We are developing the application sharing in new emerging areas, including the blockchain, the artificial intelligence, internet of things as well as 5G. Number 3 is the continuous development and empowerment by science and technology. We have digitalized service delivery and collaboration online, offline channel. We have data-driven scientific supported digital marketing, operating risk control prevention services and capabilities. This has demonstrated the enhanced digitalization of our business.
Number 4 is inclusive financing construction by science and technology. In inclusive finance, we have launched the products including the BOC e-Loan. The application of the loans, the review and approval of the loans, and the repayment of the loans could be taking place online. This can help the small, medium-sized, and micro-sized enterprises to recover their production. We have mobile banking.
The fundamental functions have been upgraded, and we have some other structural products relevant to deposits and the corporate loan, and the mortgage loans, the credit report investigation, et cetera. Number 5, to support and serve a national strategy and to support rich economic development.
We have the Big Data Smart Center in the Yangtze River Delta in Macau, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou area. We put forward the short message connect and cross-border wealth management services.
As Mr. Lin introduced in his responses, in free trade port of Hainan Province, BOC took the initiative to formulate its comprehensive finance service platform and plan program for the free trade port of Hainan Province to support construction of smart Hainan Province.
We are going all out on our green, and OASIS project and supportive engineering to deepen reform by relying on science and technology, to be more innovative by relying on science and technology. Scientific technological innovation is decisive power that will influence people's livelihood and welfare.
Fintech is the new driving force for the supply side financial reform. This year represents the beginning year of 14th Five-Year Plan. BOC is fully embracing fintech. According to our new fintech development plan, our strategy will be consistent. We will try to activate and to continue our digitalized transformation. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your comprehensive response. The digitalization is a very important measure for increasing our competitiveness global wide. I really welcome everyone to experience our digitalized products and services. Next question, please.
I am from the First Finance Journal. My question is about the carbon neutral plan. The government has made arrangements for that. What is your plan to implement the national green development policy so as to support sustainable social development?
Thank you for your question. This is a question of common concern in the international community. The consensus has been made on green finance institution mechanism, while there are various measures being made for green finance. I would like to invite VP of BOC, who is in charge of green finance business, Mr. Wang Wei, to respond to your question.
Thank you for this question, which is quite a heated discussed question. BOC is actively implementing national green development concept. Always putting or internalizing the green finance concept into our bank operational management and business development, and to make our contribution to the achievement of the objective of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. By the end of 2020, domestic green credit balance stood at CNY 896.7 billion. A lot of growth compared to the same period last year.
Our credit balance in coal and thermal power decreased continuously. In 2020, BOC issued the blue bond combining CNY 3 billion worth of RMB and a 500 million US dollar denominated bond. This is the first of this kind in the world.
In 2020, BOC underwrote the green bond issuance worth of CNY 14.587 billion, ranking the first among commercial banks. In 2021, we issued the first carbon neutral bond to support the three goals of the group, Huaneng Power International, as well as China Resources Investment Corporation.
BOC, as one of the founding partners, participated in the establishment of a Singapore Green Finance Centre. BOC, together with Beijing Institute of Finance and Sustainability and the Zhejiang Huzhou City Municipal Government, jointly signed the collaborative agreement on setting up the Green Financial College framework.
Early this year, BOC, as the supportive agency for TCFD, has actively participated in the pilot work about the information disclosure pilot, in close partnership with the Green Bond Organization Committee and the China-Britain Financial Institute. We've also been involved in sustainable financial work group as well as ISSB sustainable financial task work group related work.
We will continue to improve the top-level design of green finance and increase the proportion of green finance business in our total business. Try to help accelerate the achievement of the objective of carbon neutral, carbon peak. We will try to expand our advantages in delivering green finance business.
We also will work out the incentives and some policies and try to accelerate and intensify cooperation in the international arena to improve the information disclosure system, to change the green finance, the new name card of BOC, to make BOC the green finance service provider the first choice.
Thanks. To be clear, originally we should conclude at 6:30, but our friends have asked so many questions. I think maybe we can allow for one more question. We can allow now for the last question. Yes, the next question, and you can take the floor now.
I'd like to thank the BOC management for giving me this opportunity. I'm from Securities Daily. My question is about CSR, corporate social responsibility. State-owned major banks' responsibility to have the CSR and to serve the Chinese economy. Last year, BOC did a lot of work in terms of helping to improve the people's livelihoods.
Poverty alleviation. To give us some information on this. In 2022, it also proposed three strategic plans. How will BOC utilize financial power to help implement the strategic plans? At the same time, we are also concerned with how BOC is undertaking the twin goals of high-quality sustainable development. How do you balance the two?
Thank you. I have got your question. Your question, in fact, you have asked a series of questions covering, in fact, multiple areas of BOC strategy. Since it's a comprehensive question, I think as a spokesperson, I should ask again our President, Liu Jin, to answer it. Thank you.
Yes, thank you for your question. Your question, in fact, allows BOC again to highlight what we have achieved, and also again, to express our willpower. I think your question mainly has two aspects. First, in terms of helping to improve the people's livelihoods, in terms of poverty alleviation, what has BOC achieved? Second, what will be the next step of poverty alleviation?
What will be the BOC strategy for revitalizing rural areas? For the second question, it is still about CSR and how we can balance the CSR with our own demands for high-quality, sustainable development. I try to answer in the following dimensions. Yes, last year was quite extraordinary. There was the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and there have been significant changes at home and abroad.
All these changes pose great challenges, but BOC has always adhered to our CSR and has provided financial products and services responding to the new situation, as we are a major state-owned bank. There are three aspects. First, about improving livelihoods, about sustainability development, and about poverty alleviation. In terms of improving people's livelihood, still there are two aspects.
After the outbreak, BOC swiftly responded and commenced our anti-pandemic program so as to safeguard health and the safety of employees and the clients, and to safeguard the recovery of our business.
Our domestic and overseas branches helped each other, and altogether supported more than 10 million pieces of goods and products for the purpose of pandemic prevention and control to 57 countries and regions. BOC also has provided favorable loans of CNY 32.9 billion to more than 1,000 national enterprises and local enterprises affected by the pandemic.
In terms of inclusive financing, we continue to provide precision-based services to small and micro enterprises. We reduce or even waive some fees and charges from them. We also offer more favorable loans to them, and also we continue to optimize the BOC Global SME Matchmaking System. We have already organized 72 cross-border business matching events, attracting around 30,000 businesses from 125 countries and regions.
For the BOC Fullerton Community Bank, it already has established 126 village banks and 180 township banks in 22 provinces and municipalities in the country. 65% of them are located in the more underserved midwestern region of the country. It already is the community bank in China with the largest number of branches, and which is also most widely distributed. My colleague introduced to you the BOC endeavor in terms of green financing.
In addition, in terms of green development, sustainable development, BOC actually has done a lot of other work and also has institutionalized the green finance work. For example, under the party secretariat, there is the leading group for green finance and industry planning development, and chairman is the head of the group, and under the management team, there is the Green Finance Management Committee, and the board also regularly reviews green finance development.
Although just one month at BOC, I have been to two of the green finance related meetings. It's not only about how BOC can better understand and interpret the carbon peaking, carbon neutrality, and the government's requirements. Rather, we already are making plans about how and what we can do, and we are even looking at our list of clients to see to whom we can better provide green financial services.
As we all know, BOC has comprehensive products and services. That is our advantage. The head office branches and affiliated companies are connected in this regard, offering multiple forms to support green finance, including equity investments, loans, and debts. Once we do a good job in green finance, BOC already is making significant contributions to social and economic sustainable development.
At the same time, BOC also takes an active part in the international cooperation of green finance and we have been telling the Chinese stories. For poverty alleviation, as a major state-owned bank, definitely BOC has the responsibilities towards poverty alleviation in terms of introducing industrial projects, in terms of providing loans, in terms of stimulating consumption demand. By the end of last year, we had a balance of CNY 148.491 billion of the balance of poverty alleviation loans, up by 26.61% year-on-year.
Last year, we sent 1,184 officers to live in the poverty-stricken villages to help them. Not long ago, we had a conference whereby these more than 1,000 officers told us their stories, and we were all very impressed and motivated. BOC also lastly helped purchase and sell about CNY 700 million of agricultural products from poor regions. We helped provide grants and introduced matching funds of CNY 243 million to poverty-stricken areas.
We also helped introduce industrial projects, and we carried out some projects to improve people's livelihoods. We helped the 386 villages in four counties in Shaanxi, and we also helped 1,034 additional villages go out of poverty. On that basis, the next step actually is about rural revitalization. According to the country's overall strategy and the requirements, BOC will also better integrate and move in the transition towards the rejuvenating rural areas.
Because that is the next step after poverty alleviation, so that poverty alleviation will be consolidated. We will also make more targeted and relevant measures about revitalizing rural areas.
We will provide more financial and other products and services to those regions which have gone out of poverty, so that they continue to prosper. We will also attract more other investors and supporters.
We will also encourage our employees to buy more goods from poverty-stricken areas. Then about the balance between CSR and our own development. Yes, it's very important, and we should carefully manage the two. At the beginning of this year, Chairman Liu Liange made important remarks about how to balance CSR and profitability. As a major state-owned commercial bank, we must undertake our CSR.
Also, as the Chinese economy continues to have a high quality growth, we will also have a high quality growth of the banking business. If BOC can do even a better job in terms of CSR, if we can even make greater contributions to economic developments and to improving people's livelihood, definitely, BOC also will benefit. We will also make profits from even more business opportunities.
That is the foundation of our high-quality continuous development. Most importantly, BOC should innovate in terms of service models. We should make better use of science and technology. So our CSR-related efforts also are commercially sustainable. For example, for inclusive financing.
Previously, a lot of markets was worried about fast growth of inclusive financing loans, because historically, these loans had higher NPLs and were not very supported by digitalization and suffered from information asymmetry.
But our success in the past two years has shown that inclusive finance is not only part of the CSR, it's also a very important pathway for commercial banks to transform business models and consolidate client base. Last year, during the pandemic, the government require that commercial banks should give more support to the tangible businesses. Maybe you can still recall the numbers.
So when commercial banks needed to give away so many profits to the other parts of the national economy during the pandemic, the market had some worry about whether or not the banks themselves will be sustainable. So profit give away of CNY 150 million. Yes, but MOF also has given us the risk mitigation and policies, and also has reduced the bank reserve ratio requirement. The government also has given a lot of support to banks like BOC.
China is a socialist country with Chinese characteristics. Therefore, our commercial banks also have those Chinese characteristics. Definitely, we will always manage well the balance between CSR and profitability.
In the next step, we will continue to deepen product and service innovation to take advantage of new market opportunities. BOC will continue to experiment with repeatable and sustainable models for CSR, so that we continue to make greater values to stakeholders.
Our business itself should make steady progress. We will continue to push for healthy growth of the business and steady improvement of financial indicators, so shareholders benefit more from our brilliant business results.
Yes, many thanks to President Liu. As a major state-owned bank, we already have a history of 109 years. In the past 109 years, BOC has always made our purpose, that is contributing to the wider society. I think President Liu has provided a very good answer to the last question.
Ladies and gentlemen, I think that is the concur. Actually, today, we are also releasing the BOC 2020 CSR report. I hope our investors, analysts and media friends will have a look at it. For the interest of time, so much for the Q&A.
Many thanks to the media friends, investors and analysts to today's event. We also would like to thank the other friends who have watched our press release through online streaming. If you would like to ask even more questions, just contact us whenever it can be.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is the conclusion of the BOC 2020 business result press release. Again, many thanks to you for your support of and attention to BOC. In the beautiful season of spring, on behalf of the BOC, I wish everybody good health and success in your own business. Thank you.