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China's largest lender, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, raised US$19.1 billion in a simultaneous listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchange. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was one of the four state-owned commercial banks of China. It held 16% of China's $4.9 trillion banking assets. With a customer base of 153 million retail customers and 2.5 million corporate clients, the bank had no dearth of business. During the past five years, the bank increased its pretax profit tenfold and cut its bad-loan ratio by almost 30% from a high of 34% in 2000. Still, some old lending practices, such as focusing on market share rather than profitability and providing loans based on direct orders from the government rather than ability to repay, persisted. As the majority of stake was held by the Ministry of Finance and Central SAFE (State Administration of Foreign Exchange) Investments, there was a lack of accountability. Privatisation was believed to make the bank competitive. While the investors were rushing to subscribe to the IPO (initial public offering), many analysts were sceptical about the future of the bank due to its asset quality, low profitability and ongoing corruption charges.