Branch Reconfiguration Practice through OR in ICBC
Abstract: As the largest publicly traded bank in the world measured by market capitalization, deposit volume and profitability, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC) has a vast network of over 16,000 branches. To keep a leading position in the competitive China market, a critical strategic problem for ICBC was the reconfiguration of branch locations and service capabilities to match the regional economy and customer distribution, along with quick identification and relocation to new high potential market areas. Partnering with IBM, ICBC customized an OR based branch network optimization system known as Branch Reconfiguration (BR). So far, BR has been implemented in 40 major cities in China. The increase in deposits attributable to BR in a typical major city like Suzhou was US$1.04 billion. Over time it is expected that ICBC will continue to experience additional deposits. The BR project is a successful example of using OR methods to transform the service channels of a large bank with excellent results.
BR = Branch Reconfiguration - ICBC's customized O.R.-based bank branch network optimization system