ICBC handles 70% more cross-border RMB settlements in H1

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) reported total cross-border renminbi transactions handled by the bank amounted to 1.7 trillion yuan ($276 billion) in the first half of 2014, jumping more than 70 percent from a year earlier.

ICBC, China's largest lender by market value, said on Monday it had finished cross-border renminbi settlements worth nearly 6.7 trillion yuan since 2009, when China started trials of cross-border trade settlement using yuan in Hong Kong, Macao, ASEAN countries as well as a few other select locations.

Institutions at home and abroad had opened 512 accounts at ICBC on cross-border renminbi clearing, and the bank is now providing cross-border renminbi clearing in 75 countries and regions.

ICBC said it has been expanding cross-border renminbi businesses in the last few years, both in the Chinese mainland and in overseas markets.

In the first half of 2014, ICBC handled the first direct New Zealand dollar-yuan transaction in New Zealand, which was an exchange purchase business under goods trade, the bank said.

As one of the three lead arrangers, ICBC also helped the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, issue yuan-denominated bonds worth 1 billion yuan in March in London.