Ping An #8 in Global FutureBrand Index 2021, Tops Financial Services Sector List
HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Sept. 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEx:2318; SSE:601318) announced that Ping An jumped to #8 in the FutureBrand Index 2021, up seven places from last year. It also and topped the Financial Services Sector list.
The FutureBrand Index is a global brand perception study based on interviews with business leaders, decision makers and market watchers. The study, the sixth since 2014, focuses on the PwC Global Top 100 Companies by market capitalization. The companies are reordered in terms of brand perception strength based on 18 indicators, including innovation, consistency and trust. The result is a rigorous assessment of how future-proof the world's 100 most prominent companies are.
FutureBrand said: "Like many of the other companies in our Top Ten this year, Ping An touches a number of areas of public life, from insurance and banking to healthcare. After a slight dip in the rankings in 2020 – when many Chinese companies were impacted by a short-term perception shift driven by the pandemic – Ping An rose seven places to number 8 in 2021."
Against the backdrop of complex market challenges in the first half of 2021, Ping An advanced its integrated financial business under the brand philosophy of "Expertise makes life simple," and its commitment to providing customers with "worry-free, time-saving, and money-saving" integrated financial services. The Company continued to strengthen its technological capabilities to provide customers with heartwarming "finance + healthcare" services through its healthcare ecosystem amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the first half of 2021, Ping An's business grew steadily. It achieved a 21.0% annualized operating ROE, with operating profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company rising 10.1% year-on-year to RMB81,836 million. Ping An's retail customers exceeded 223 million as of June 30, 2021, of whom 38.7% held multiple contracts with different subsidiaries of the Company. Ping An Smart Healthcare empowered over 40,000 medical institutions and benefited approximately 950,000 doctors in 170 cities as of June 30, 2021. Total revenue of technology business rose 14.2% year-on-year to RMB48,809 million in the first half of 2021. Ping An's technology patent applications reached 34,920 as of June 30, 2021, which is more than most other international financial institutions. The Group uses AI to promote sales, improve efficiency, and contain risks for its financial businesses.
Ping An also integrates sustainability into its corporate strategy. To support China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality goal, the Group upgraded its green finance initiative in 2021, including green insurance, green investment and green credit. Ping An's responsible investments amounted to nearly RMB1.21 trillion as of June 30, 2021. The balances of inclusive loans and green loans were RMB426,377 million and RMB57,109 million respectively. Through the Ping An Rural Communities Support program, the Group also provided RMB36,024 million for poverty alleviation and industry revitalization as of June 30, 2021.
In addition to Ping An, Chinese financial services brands in general have a significant presence in the FutureBrand Index 2021. Other notable mentions include Agricultural Bank of China (51), China Merchants Bank (52) and China Construction Bank (54).
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