China's ICBC plans to create RMB in Luxembourg

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) plans to create a RMB cross-border business center in Luxembourg to cover Europe, it said on Tuesday. The bank revealed the plan in a seminar attended by ICBC Chairman Jiang Jianqing and the Finance Minister of Luxembourg Luc Frieden. In an interview with Xinhua, Xu Zhi, head of Financial Markets Department of ICBC (Europe), said that last year, ICBC (Europe) made financing cross-border trade in RMB for a total of 10.8 billion yuan (1.7 billion U.S. dollars), and generated a combined total of 25.9 billion yuan in RMB cross-border transaction. Headquartered in Luxembourg, ICBC (Europe) operates a network which covers major European cities, including Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Warsaw and Lisbon. During the first four months of this year, ICBC (Europe) was more dynamic in its RMB business, recording 17.5 billion yuan on the financing of cross-border trade and 16.4 billion yuan on cross-border transactions. In March 2013, ICBC (Europe) helped the French company Renault to issue bonds of 750 million yuan through ICBC (Asia) on the Hong Kong market. According to Li Yanni, director of the RMB cross-border business division at ICBC headquarters in Beijing, the Chinese commercial bank has 400 facilities in 39 countries and regions and better access to capital markets in 18 African countries as the single largest shareholder of South Africa's Standard Bank. Since the launch of RMB cross-border business in 2009, ICBC has actively promoted the implementation of the RMB in cross-border business operations. Its RMB compensation network now covers nearly 70 countries and regions, and RMB cross-border business has reached a total amount of 3,000 billion yuan. Jiang said he appreciated Luxembourg, which has 20 billion yuan of deposits in RMB, as one of the most important financial centers in Europe and in the world and an excellent platform for the development of RMB cross-border business. Frieden welcomed the development of RMB cross-border business of ICBC in Luxembourg and Europe and stressed the "common success" for ICBC and Luxembourg. (1 yuan = 0.16 U.S. dollar)