At the end of February, over 10 million short messages have been processed through ICBC SMS Banking, to 11.03 million. In a single day, ICBC SMS Banking processes more than 120,000 short messages. Today, nearly 4.6 million customers use ICBC SMS Banking.

The SMS Banking is now a major customer service channel of ICBC, said an executive with the Bank. To ICBC customers, the first choice to get further information on precious metal service and foreign exchange service is to send a short message to ICBC, representing respectively 96.6% and 91.5% of all SMS enquiries sent to ICBC. The percentages of SMS enquiries regarding transfer/remittance, account/debit card, Personal Internet Banking and outlet location are also on the rise.

An executive with ICBC said, the main reason that SMS Banking being so well-received in such a short period is the fast and convenient financial services to the users. First, customers only need to edit the question into a SMS and send to 95588, SMS Banking will send back an accurate reply immediately. The average waiting time is only 60 seconds. The cost to customers is minimal, since ICBC SMS Banking does not collect any fee, except the SMS fee collected by telecom operators.

Besides, ICBC leverages its strong technology to achieve a breakthrough, providing complex business advisory service on top of answering simple enquiry. Through the supplement and update of massive data, ICBC SMS Banking has built a SMS database covering 45,000 Q&A on all ICBC services. Each Q&A in the templates is arranged in logical order, very straight-forward down to each step, comprehensive and simple. Today, ICBC SMS Banking has a service team with members very knowledgeable in precious metal, wealth management and internet banking, also experts such as customer behavior analysts, SMS template specialists. Their professional skills are the strong support to ensure best delivery of customer services.

Self-service is another highlight of ICBC SMS Banking besides giving fast and accurate reply to all SMS enquiries from customers. Steps are much simpler for checking account balance, account opening bank or latest quotes. Three types of self-service menu ("Digital", "First alphabet for pinyin", and "Chinese label") are now available for customers to choose and get their answers. For example: checking account opening bank, it is the same to send "2# card No.", "KHH#card No." or "account opening bank (in Chinese)#card No.". For checking account balance or bonus point, customers only need to follow the instructions. Once a password is successfully set for SMS Banking, just send "number#card No. or A/C No.# (password device) dynamic password or enquiry password". This is faster than pressing the keys step by step in conventional Telephone Banking voice menu.