ICBC stepped up scrutiny over the distribution of third-party trust investments earlier this year after China Credit Trust failed to repay final year interest on a 3 billion yuan trust loan sold via ICBC.

Yi said it's quite normal to have one or two cases of delinquency, and he emphasized that "the key issue here is how to ascertain responsibilities among participants".

The bank has combed through its agency collection and repayment of money projects one by one, and it found that the risks are manageable. At the end of 2013, the value of these businesses totaled 11.7 billion yuan and involved 24 projects.

"We believe, in essence, that the distributor does its due job, and then the investors shoulder responsibility for the losses. Therefore, we shoulder no responsibility for the implicit guarantee of repayment of either the principal or the interest," Yi said.

To stabilize profit and spread risks, ICBC also continued to penetrate overseas markets and strengthened its customer service capability globally.

At the end of 2013, total assets of the bank's overseas institutions reached $209.16 billion, increasing 28.5 percent from the previous year. Profit before tax also rose 33.5 percent to $2.23 billion, with the growth rate considerably exceeding that of the bank's domestic business. The NPL ratio of overseas institutions was maintained at a low level of 0.49 percent.

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