According to Ravi Menon, the two countries have bilateral trade exceeding 80 billion U.S. dollars, while the trade between China and ASEAN also recorded at 400 billion U.S. dollars. "This large and growing cross border trade will fuel greater RMB trade settlement activity in Singapore over time. The RMB clearing bank will be an important channel for RMB liquidity to circulate between Singapore and China." he said.
In financing aspect, Ravi Menon also said, with the existing RMB-denominated bonds, Singapore will see "the range of RMB- denominated product offerings to expand, as regional corporates raise RMB financing through bond issuances and equity listings, to tap on the strong investor base in the region."
Jiang Jianqing, ICBC Chairman and Executive Director, said at the event that ICBC Singapore will provide to participating banks in Singapore safe, quality and efficient RMB clearing services, offer value-added services such as RMB deposit, inter-bank lending, account overdraft and secured financing;
He also added the new clearing bank service will provide comprehensive cross-border RMB settlement and financing services based on the salient trading characteristics and specific requirements of companies in Singapore, which will further enhance the economic ties between China and Singapore as well as the ASEAN region.
According to the ICBC, the cross-border transactions of ICBC domestic and overseas institutions have exceeded 1.53 trillion yuan (247 billion U.S.dollars) in 2012, up nearly 70 percent from previous year and the RMB clearing network covers up to 70 countries and regions in the world.
ICBC Singapore Branch, established in 1993, had its assets reaching 15.3 billion yuan (2.47 billion U.S. dollars) as of the end of last year, and the RMB settlement in that year was over 94. 0 billion yuan (15.2 billion U.S. dollars), surging 107 percent on year.
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