Serving Enterprises, Facilitating Cross-Border Trade — Bohai Bank Safeguards the Real Economy's Voyage into the "New Blue Ocean"

2026 is the first year of the “14th Five-Year Plan.” This year’s government work report explicitly emphasizes the need to cultivate and strengthen new drivers of growth, focusing on developing the real economy, adapting to local conditions to develop new quality productivity, expanding cross-border use of the RMB, and supporting stable development of foreign trade and foreign investment. With an annual economic growth target of 4.5% to 5%, the banking industry is nourishing the development of new quality productivity with financial resources, becoming a key part of policy implementation. Bohai Bank promptly aligns with national strategic deployments and the latest policy directions, combining its own positioning, flexibly using various financial tools, innovating financial products, and anchoring on serving the real economy and supporting foreign investment and trade. From “massive flooding” to “precise drip irrigation,” from “passive acceptance” to “proactive deep cultivation,” and from “single credit” to “ecosystem empowerment,” the bank continuously optimizes resource allocation and improves the quality and efficiency of financial services.

Cross-border Trade “Integrating”

Recently, Bohai Bank’s Free Trade Accounting Unit (FTU) in the Pilot Free Trade Zone officially launched its master and branch model. This implementation, guided by the Shanghai headquarters and Tianjin branch of the People’s Bank of China, is an important measure to fulfill the infrastructure requirements of free trade financial services, marking a solid step forward in improving Bohai Bank’s free trade financial service system and enhancing its ability to serve the real economy. Currently, Chinese enterprises are accelerating their “going out” and “bringing in” strategies. The FT master-branch model launched by Bohai Bank systematically reconstructs its business management under FT accounts through unified standards, centralized operations, and closed-loop processes, effectively improving management efficiency and full-process risk control.

Simultaneously, Bohai Bank has optimized its “Cross-border Free Trade Pass” product system to deeply connect with FT account functions, covering scenarios such as settlement, hedging, financing, and free trade bonds. The bank’s RMB cross-border payment system (CIPS) direct participation system has also recently gone into operation, marking Bohai Bank as the first financial institution in Tianjin to directly access this national-level financial infrastructure as a corporate bank. This upgrade is not only a technological integration but also a crucial leap in Bohai Bank’s cross-border financial service capabilities, adding a strong engine to serve the real economy and support high-level opening-up. Within just two days of launch, the cross-border RMB settlement amount processed through Bohai Bank’s CIPS direct channel reached 910 million yuan, achieving a “good start.” Behind this impressive data is a significant shift in its payment identity: previously, banks participated indirectly, requiring intermediary banks for cross-border payments, which involved multiple steps and long processing times. Now, as a direct participant, Bohai Bank has achieved “single-point access” to the CIPS network, providing clients with “point-to-point” fund clearing services. On the first day of system launch, Bohai Bank’s Guangzhou branch successfully completed its first CIPS direct payment with a pharmaceutical company in Guangzhou. The company experienced a shift from uncertain waiting times to a “point-to-point” rapid experience, with full visibility of payment status and complete control over fund flow. Additionally, by eliminating intermediary banks, clients also significantly reduced intermediary fees, truly benefiting from cost savings.

Supporting the Real Economy with “Loans”

To fully support the development of new quality productivity and promote the transformation and upgrading of advanced manufacturing, Bohai Bank continuously innovates products and services, injecting financial resources into the smart manufacturing sector. A deep collaboration aimed at reshaping the automotive industry chain is underway. Recently, Bohai Bank reached a strategic, comprehensive cooperation with Xpeng Motors, a leading domestic smart car company, jointly building a supply chain financial service platform, which has already completed its first transaction. This not only extends Bohai Bank’s特色品牌 “Car Sales Easy” into the automotive ecosystem but also marks a new phase of systematic and platform-based integration of financial technology and industry scenarios.

The cooperation with Xpeng Motors is based on previous experience serving major automakers and supporting enterprises, utilizing the “Bohai Silver E-Chain” system and client platform for real-time data interaction. The bank embeds financing approval and credit allocation processes into enterprise transaction scenarios, leveraging a solid technological platform and agile product development to quickly respond to personalized customer needs, efficiently customize processes, and deploy services, ensuring rapid implementation and stable system operation.

Notably, Bohai Bank has gone beyond system integration to achieve deep product customization. For suppliers of Xpeng Motors, considering their billing cycles and cash flow rhythms, the bank offers flexible credit models and differentiated pricing strategies, providing financing costs more competitive than the market average. This “low cost + high efficiency + high adaptability” service combination not only directly improves the financing accessibility for small and medium suppliers but also indirectly enhances the efficiency of the supply chain’s capital operation, channeling low-cost funds to truly needed enterprises. “Financial services for the real economy” is no longer an abstract concept but a tangible support embedded in every order and delivery. By the end of 2025, Bohai Bank’s supply chain finance had served 28 leading automotive companies, with a total credit support of nearly 40 billion yuan, and an annual supply chain finance volume approaching 330 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of over 27%.

Though the road is difficult, good solutions can be found; though the path is long, perseverance will lead to success. 2026 is a critical year for Bohai Bank’s decisive transformation and development. The bank will follow national policies, aiming to build a regional leading bank, an industry boutique bank, and a professional value bank. It will adhere to problem-solving, practical, and value-driven approaches, focusing on the “Nine Major Banks,” showcasing its unique features of transformation and development, and striving for a fundamental leap from “experience-driven” to “mechanism-driven” management.

As the mountains rise higher, the wind blows stronger. Bohai Bank will continue to support the real economy by focusing on “scenario finance,” strengthening deep cultivation in key industries, and concentrating on core tracks such as artificial intelligence, smart manufacturing, and new energy. It will also explore frontier tracks like aerospace technology and quantum technology, building an “finance + scenario” ecological service system, continuously optimizing supply chain finance products, improving system response speed, and expanding the reach of特色品牌 like “Car Sales Easy” into more manufacturing fields. While helping to reduce costs and increase efficiency across the industry chain, the bank will also provide ongoing financial support for cultivating new quality productivity and building a modern industrial system, helping the实体经济 “go out” and “bring in,” and continuously sailing toward the “new blue ocean.”