First Specialized Bills Institution in China's Mainland OpensAs the first business institution specializing in bills trade in China's mainland, the Bills Department of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) opened recently in Shanghai.The department specializes in dealing with discounts, rediscount and counter-purchase of bank and commercial drafts, and applying for their rediscount to China's Central Bank. It also provides consulting and verification services to bills trade, and a custodian service to commercial drafts holders. "Without such a specialized common trading place, bills transaction in China used to be scattered in thousands of places, so specialized operation and management cannot form, making bills a means of payment or just a substitute for loans," ICBC's President Jiang Jianqing said in an interview. He added that this newly-founded department will help expand China's bills trade and cultivate a united national bills market. Shanghai witnessed the first bills business in China when a bills accepting house was founded in 1936, and gradually became the birthplace of the Chinese bills market. The Shanghai Stock Market, China Foreign Exchange Trading Center and many other important financial institutions are located in the metropolis. According to Liu Tinghuan, vice president of China's Central Bank, people in Shanghai have a stronger sense of finance and bills are more widely used there, which makes Shanghai the best location for China to develop its bills market. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |