(Yicai Global) March 23 -- Major state-backed Chinese bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC) has formed a partnership with several real estate conglomerates and agencies to formally start the direct system connection service for mortgages, aiming to improve the efficiency of its services and enhance its customer experience.

ICBC signed the agreement today in Shenzhen with three real estate giants, namely China Vanke Co, Country Garden Holdings Co. and China Evergrande Group, as well as Beijing Homelink Real Estate Agency Co. and other agencies, Cnstock.com reported.

Direct system connection service means developers and agencies can directly provide loan application services for customers via their own systems, with all application information and electronic materials directly synchronized to the ICBC set-up. Developers and intermediaries can also instantly learn the progress of loan approval, which improves the transparency and efficiency of these mortgage businesses.

The direct system connection helps solve the problems of traditional mortgage loan services such as poor communication between banks and companies, customers' shuttling among various sites and duplicative data entry, Gu Shu, President of ICBC, said at the ceremony.

ICBC has begun to deepen the reform of its operating system for personal credit business since last year to improve service efficiency and reduce business costs, Gu added. The reform focused on products, frameworks, processes, teams, systems, channels, risk control and organizational structures.