2026 Golden Stone Award | CITIC Bank: Safeguarding Retirement "Money Bags" with Professional Services, Innovating and Upgrading "Happiness+" Pension Financial Service System

Special Topic: 2026 Golden Stone Award and Excellent Cases in Financial Consumer Protection

The results of the “2026 Golden Stone Award and Excellent Cases in Financial Consumer Protection” event hosted by Sina Finance have been announced. This issue features outstanding cases of convenient and elderly-friendly services. Among multiple financial institutions competing, CITIC Bank stood out with its submission titled “Using Professional Services to Protect the ‘Money Bag’ for Retirement, Innovating and Upgrading the ‘Happiness+’ Retirement Financial Service System,” winning the “Excellent Case in Convenient and Elderly-Friendly Services” award.

Below is a brief summary of the case:

CITIC Bank is one of the earliest commercial banks in China to launch dedicated services for elderly customers. As the only strategic partner bank of the China Aging Association, CITIC Bank actively implements national strategies, adheres to a customer-centric business philosophy, and takes the lead in building a comprehensive retirement financial ecosystem covering the entire lifecycle, focusing on major retirement financial initiatives. The bank has actively worked on optimizing offline service channels for elderly clients, innovating wealth management tools for seniors, promoting internet application adaptations for the elderly, strengthening mechanisms to prevent financial fraud, enhancing education and training for elderly customers, and organizing diverse cultural and sports activities for seniors. These efforts help elderly people handle banking transactions more conveniently and safely, effectively safeguarding consumers’ legal rights and interests.

1. Innovation in launching the industry’s first online wealth management tool for the elderly. The “Happiness+” Retirement Ledger is CITIC Bank’s pioneering online platform that covers the entire lifecycle of retirement financial and non-financial services. In 2025, building on the existing “Pre-Retirement” retirement ledger designed for those planning for retirement, CITIC Bank launched a new “Enjoy Retirement” ledger specifically tailored for retired individuals’ retirement wealth management needs. Through asset sorting and easy bookkeeping, it helps elderly clients manage their daily expenses, health care, quality of life, and children’s care—ensuring steady wealth growth and effective inheritance.

2. Collaboration with the China Senior University Association and Central University of Finance and Economics to launch the first systematic video course on elderly finance. The course covers six modules: retirement financial planning, spending, investment and wealth management, inheritance, fraud prevention, and mobile banking usage, with over 40 sessions. It addresses various financial education needs of elderly clients across multiple scenarios, incorporating real-life examples to make professional financial knowledge easier for seniors to understand and accept.

3. Partnership with the China Research Center on Aging and Hualing Publishing to produce and publish a professional book titled “In the Age of Longevity, How to Manage Retirement Funds.” The book, based on the characteristics and needs of the elderly, comprehensively introduces concepts and methods of elderly wealth management through Q&A and case studies, covering policies, investment tools, strategies, risk prevention, and family wealth inheritance.

4. CITIC Bank has released the “China Resident Retirement Wealth Management Development Report” for four consecutive years. Through in-depth research and analysis of residents’ wealth management behaviors and non-financial service needs, the report explores innovative financial products and the integration of retirement services, drawing on international experience to provide perspectives and practical insights for China’s retirement finance development.

5. Upgrading the “Happiness+” Club’s non-financial services and activities. This includes large-font modifications and page restructuring; adding travel and companionship modules based on CITIC Bank’s outbound financial services to facilitate international travel; connecting with UnionPay’s Vitality Life Card benefits system to offer health care, transportation, medical, and cultural travel discounts; and developing new modules for retirement communities, travel retirement, and home-based retirement services based on customers’ retirement modes.

CITIC Bank also collaborates with the China Senior University Association to conduct various cultural, sports, and financial education activities. The “Parents’ Talent Contest” promotes talent showcases through community and senior university events, encouraging seniors to display their skills. The “Silver Age Reading Program,” launched with Hualing Publishing under the China Aging Association, sets up “Happy Age Bookcases” at branches and hosts “Happy Age Book Clubs,” providing a good reading environment for seniors.

Additionally, CITIC Bank has strengthened its anti-fraud intelligent risk control system. It continuously builds a telecom fraud prevention framework, launching the “Sentinel” smart anti-fraud system, which intervenes with high-risk customers through blocking, phone verification, and delayed transactions, effectively protecting elderly clients’ assets.

Since its launch in November 2025, the “Happiness+” Retirement Ledger has served over 250,000 elderly clients with retirement wealth planning; the online elderly financial video courses have been accessed by over 30,000 users; nearly 100 events such as “Warmth in Trust” campus visits and “Happy Age” reading clubs have been held nationwide, with “Happy Age” bookshelves installed at 53 “Happiness+” senior service outlets. By the end of 2025, CITIC Bank had served more than 30 million elderly customers.