Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to China Merchants Bank 2014 results announcement. I am Xu Shiqing, the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the bank. Now I would like to introduce the bank's management who are present today. On the stage, there are Mr. Li Jianhong, Chairman of China Merchants Bank, Mr. Tian Huiyu, the President of China Merchants Bank, Mr. Zhang Guanghua, Vice Chairman of China Merchants Bank, Mr. Li Hao, First Vice President and CFO of the bank, and Mr. Wang Liang, Vice President of China Merchants Bank. Present here today are also Mr. Hong Xiaoyuan, a non-executive executive director, as well as chiefs of relevant departments. Our guests today include Chinese and English media, and the analysts and institutions from mainland China and Hong Kong.
On behalf of China Merchants Bank, I would like to welcome you all to the conference and thank you for your interest and your investment and confidence in China Merchants Bank. In today's presentation, Mr. Li will firstly review the highlights of the annual results. President Tian Huiyu will analyze the operation performance of 2014, and Chairman Li will discuss the prospects of 2014 strategy, and we will then move to a Q&A session. There will be simultaneous interpretation in English for both the presentation and Q&A session. Now I would like to pass the floor to Chairman Li. Mr. Li, please.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our 2014 annual results presentation. First of all, let me give an overview of our 2014 annual results. In 2014, the group, in adherence to its guiding principles of achieving balanced development of efficiency, quality, and scale, has strengthened its strategic focus, and maintained the upward and transformation, maintained satisfactory performance. In 2014, net income improved by 8% year-on-year, ROAA and ROAE amounted to 1.28% and 19.28% respectively, and remained at sound levels. NPL ratios remained stable at 1.11%, remain controllable.
Total assets grew by 17.81% as compared with the end of last year, which is a reasonable growth. The group continuously improved its capital position and maintained its prudent risk management. Capital adequacy ratio improved steadily. Under advanced method, CAR up by 0.93 percentage points compared with the June of 2014. Under weighted method, it rose by 0.6 percentage points compared with the end of last year. The risk compensation capacity for unexpected losses further improved. NPL allowance coverage ratio, 233%. Loan allowance ratio, 2.59%.
Credit cost remained at 1.43%. The group adopted prudent classification criteria for loans. The ratio of its NPLs to loans overdue more than 90 days was 1.11. The group strictly followed regulatory rules and measures the risks accurately and makes necessary provisions based on the base assets. Non-standard credit assets allowance ratio was 1.43%. The bank promoted transformation of a business model and forged an asset-light banking strategy. In terms of capital light, RWA to total assets under the weighted method was 66%, down by 1.72 percentage points. RWA increased by 15%, while at the same time, net operating income grew by 25% compared with the end of 2013. The capital consumption notably decreased. Quarter one capital adequacy ratio under the advanced method rose by 0.81 percentage points compared with the June of 2014.
Under the Standardised Approach method, it rose by 0.08 percentage points compared with the end of last year. In terms of asset-light strategy, net non-interest income increased by 62% year-on-year to about CNY 50 billion. The proportion of non-interest income to the operating income was about 32%. ROE stayed relatively high at about 24% and well above the cost of capital. In 2014, the company grasped the opportunity of relaunching pilot programs of asset securitization and issued three asset securitization products. The total issue size is about CNY 24.5 billion, and the scale ranked as number one among commercial banks in China. In terms of light operation, operational efficiency improved continuously. Cost to income is 30.1% in 2014, down by about 4 percentage points. The bank fully leveraged on its traditional strength in electronic banking.
Replacement ratio of counter transactions with electronic channels in respect to corporate and retail e-banking channels amounted to about 96% and 56%, respectively. Replacement ratio of online settlements amounted to 93%. Accumulated number volume of retail online banking transactions grew by about 30%. In 2014, the bank implemented the business strategy of One Body with Two Wings, highlighting the strategic position of retail finance with the support of both corporate banking and financial institutions. The percentage of pre-tax profit of retail finance reached to 43%, which is about 6 percentage points improvement compared with last year. Net operating income of corporate banking grew by 15%. Net operating income from FI finance business was up by 81%. Corporate banking has been exploring payroll services, commercial cards, and corporate annuity opportunities to expand the customer base of retail finance. In 2014, about CNY 650 billion was distributed through the payroll services.
Retail finance product sales attributed to corporate banking reached about RMB 26 billion. Financial institutions financial services offered more than 2,000 wealth management products to retail finance customers. The group continued to enjoy tremendous social recognition, winning several domestic and international awards, including best private bank in China and best retail bank. This is my brief review of our full-year performance in 2014. Thank you. Now, I would like to invite President Tian Huiyu to present the full-year operational information.
Thank you, Chairman Li. In 2014, the retail finance continued to maintain competitive advantages. The number of retail customers grew by 18% year-on-year to 56 million. Number of Sunflower level and above customers improved by 21%. Number of private banking customers increased by 29%. Number of circulative credit card accounts rose by 23%. Wealth management achieved rapid growth.
AUM of retail customers grew rapidly to about CNY 3.5 trillion, which is 23% improvement year-on-year. AUM of Sunflower level and above customers went up by 26%. AUM of private banking customers increased by 32%. Accumulated sales of personal wealth management products is about CNY 4.8 trillion, up by 42%. Sales of open-ended mutual funds grew by 55%. Standard premiums for the sale of our third-party life insurance policies went up by 24%. Micro enterprises business improved steadily. Number of micro enterprises customers grew by 53% compared with the end of last year, amounted to 1.4 million. Loans extended to micro enterprises increased by 19% and accounted for 35% in the total retail loan book. Consumer finance continued to be strengthened. Balance of residential mortgage grew by 23%. All-in-one cards cumulative transactions went up by 100%.
Credit card cumulative transaction value further grew by 42%, and balance of credit card overdraft went up by 42%. The bank strived to grow its corporate banking business into professional services. The number of corporate deposit customers grew by 35%. The balance of corporate loans went up by 8%. Daily average balance of customer deposits grew by 22%. The market share of onshore RMB corporate loans went up by 0.3 percentage points to 3.12%.
The bank delivered the highest growth in onshore RMB corporate loans among all small to medium-sized banks in 2014. As of the end of 2014, number of cash management customers went up by 72 percentage points. Cumulative number of corporate online banking transactions grew by 38% year-on-year, and cumulative transactions value of corporate online banking transactions increased by 41%. Trade finance achieved rapid expansion. In 2014, the bank promoted the rapid development of its trade finance business.
The number of new core supply chain customers amounted to 1,488. Amount of domestic trade finance increased by 77%, as compared with the end of last year. The granted value of international trade facilities grew by 10%, while the balance of offshore trade finance rose by 55%. Cross-border Finance business maintained its fast development. Number of international business customers onshore grew by 24%. Number of offshore customers rose by 22%. Amount of cross-border RMB settlement increased by 99%. International settlements increased by 26%. Foreign exchange settlements on behalf of customers grew by 23% year-on-year. Investment banking and M&A finance business witnessed strong breakthroughs. Number of M&A advisory customers went by 261%. The debt financing instruments' underrated climbed by 65% year-on-year. Financial institutions' asset management business reported booming development. Balance of operating funds of wealth management products increased by 42%.
Net value products as percentage of operating funds of wealth management products rose by 18 percentage points as compared with last year. Custodian business experienced rapid growth. Balance of entrusted assets grew by 91%. The bank's market share in client AUM custody for fund companies reached 14%, which is number one in the industry. Asset custody department, including the insurance brokerage trust, six kind of customer basis, there are altogether more than 7,000 projects, and the number of custody projects has risen 128% compared to the last year. Financial market business achieved strong growth. Volume of bond trading grew by 181% as compared with last year. Volume of proprietary derivatives trading went by 61%. Volume of transfer discounted bills increased by more than 300%. The comprehensive financial services continued to grow. Total assets of Wing Lung Group grew by 14%. Total assets of CMB Financial Leasing improved by 34%.
Total net income of CMB International Capital went up by 44%. AUM of China Merchants Fund grew by 92%. The scale of CIGNA & CMB Life Insurance was up by 25%. The bank will promote the development of internet finance by leveraging on the traffic, platforms, and data. The bank develops our business through increasing traffic through mobile banking, CMB Life, SME e-com, and corporate e-banking, and achieved steady growth. The bank achieved establishment of platforms of mobile banking, CMB Life, SME e-home, C-cash management, and supply chain finance and internet financial assets trading, and increased traffic so as to drive the transformation into an internet-based banking model. We will establish a big data platform integrated with structured and non-structured data to support analysis and decision-making. The bank focused on strengthening risk management and maintained stable asset quality. Corporate NPL ratio 1.59%. Small enterprises NPL ratio 2.83%.
Retail banking NPL ratio 0.78%. Micro enterprises was 1.08%. Non-standard credit assets of NPL ratio is only 0.005%. NPL ratio of loans for domestic corporate real estate was down by 0.2 percentage points, and NPL ratio of loans extended to overcapacity was only 1.75% and remained under control.
Thank you, President Tian. Next, I will introduce the outlook and strategies of the company. Looking into 2015, there are complicated and ever-changing economic and financial environment, both in and out of the countries. There are unbalanced growth and development profiles between countries. Economic and monetary policies of major countries steadily diverged, and complexity, uncertainty of global financial markets will increase. Domestically, slowdown and transformation in economic growth poses difficulties for the banking sector. Expected rate cuts, interest rate liberalization, and financial disintermediation will put banks' earnings under pressure.
Competitors from within and outside the sector, particularly internet finance companies and privately-owned banks, will intensify our competition. But at the same time, we also have abundant development opportunities, including, first of all, the deepened reform in the areas of government functions and fiscal and taxation systems will facilitate the transformation and upgrade of Chinese economy, and brings about overall development of the country, providing banks with new room for the growth. Implementation of the progress of strategic initiative, such as RMB internationalization, One Belt One Road, and free trade zone provides commercial banks with business development opportunities. With relatively fast growth of social wealth and drastic change in personal investment and consumption behavior, private banking, wealth management, and consumer finance services offered by the banks will have a bright outlook.
Accelerated development of multilevel financial markets and asset securitization will drive strong growth of intermarket and intersegment assets management business. Rapid technology development, such as internet banking, will enable banks to provide more and better services through new IT platforms, data mining, and traffic management. Faced with such challenges and opportunities in 2015, we will adhere to our strategies of forging asset-light banking strategy, and firm implementing our "One Body with Two Wings" strategy. Further strengthen the management and implementation of our strategies in response to domestic and international developments, enhance capital and risk management, improve capital efficiency, and all risk management capacity. Continue to push forward reforms in system and optimization to improve management and operating efficiencies. Refine our incentives and restraints mechanism to promote business activities, increase focus, and accelerate the development of internet finance. The above is brief introduction of CMB 2014 performance and outlook for 2015.
Thank you