As related by ICBC, since the kick-off of the pilot scheme for the cross border RMB business, ICBC leverages on its strength in RMB clearing/settlement and extensive global service network to grow and innovate aggressively. The renminbi cross-border settlement business of ICBC stays on a fast track. As of today, ICBC branches in China and overseas have concluded for customers a total of 2662 settlements across the border in RMB, involving an amount totaled to 40 billion yuan. In this business area, ICBC is leading the pack both in terms of business volume and market shares.
Industry insiders said that a larger driver of ICBC success in this emerging business has been the strong innovation of ICBC. Since the start of the pilot, ICBC has always been looking for new options in the offering of RMB financial services in overseas. Today, ICBC's cross-border RMB business spans across different areas in trade, services, capital and financing and includes all the settlement options for import and export as remittance, collection, letter of credit.
Additions to the product suite are the tailored and diversified financial services in trade finance and RMB investment across the border. In terms of product innovation, ICBC created a number of "First" in this market. ICBC opened the world's first RMB usance L/C on July 3 2009, the first day of offering the services to public.
Subsequently, ICBC created another "First" by completing the "First Clearance" of goods in RMB through China Customs. In August this year, ICBC, Huawei and its Indonesia partner signed a total amount of 2 billion yuan in the export buyer's credit agreement. This is the first export buyer's credit business in RMB globally as of today.
More important, the growth of ICBC's cross-border RMB business is supported by its expertise in RMB settlement/clearing and global service network. Being a top bank in RMB funds and business globally, ICBC has rich experience in RMB settlement/clearing, trade finance and broad customer base. ICBC is also one of the domestic commercial banks with the highest footprint internationally, by the end of June, ICBC has 181 branches and subsidiaries located within 22 countries/regions and a network of 1429 correspondent banks in 131 countries/regions.
ICBC is strengthening its global presence gradually. Besides, ICBC extends its industry-leading all-function business processing system to overseas subsidiaries in an effort to enhance the synchronous processing of domestic and overseas businesses and the strength of their risk capabilities. This paves the way for ICBC to start the cross-border RMB business.
As the pilot on the cross-border RMB business expands, more and more enterprises feel the convenience and benefits of the service. At a recent seminar on cross-border RMB business held in Hong Kong, Shanghai Baoshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd , a customer of ICBC and one of the enterprises in the first batch of pilot, stated that the Company was deeply impressed by ICBC excellent and highly efficient services.
The Company will continue to build relationship with ICBC and use the service for more settlements. An executive with ICBC also related the next step of ICBC. The bank will take the advantage of being first-mover in cross-border RMB business to sharpen its competence in international settlement and trade finance, and deliver more comprehensive and complete cross-border financial services to foreign-trade enterprises in China and customers around the world.
