Recently, ICBC successfully issued multicurrency Belt and Road themed overseas green bonds in Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, and Dubai. It is a pragmatic measure of ICBC to actively serve the Belt and Road financial integration and practice in depth the concept of green development. It has further consolidated ICBC’s leading advantage in the issuance of overseas green bonds.

The issuance of the green bonds conforms to both the Green Bond Principles of the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) and the China Green Bond Principles. The issuance involves three currencies and four varieties, including USD floating and fixed interest rates, EUR fixed interest rates and CNH fixed interest rates. The funds raised from this issuance will be used in green projects in areas with remarkable carbon emission reduction effect, such as green transportation and renewable energy. Highly recognized by the market, ICBC’s green bond issuance attracted enthusiastic subscription by institutional investors along the Belt and Road. The final issue scale is equivalent to USD2.03 billion.

It is learnt that over seventy percent of the underwriters for the issuance are members of the Belt and Road Inter-bank Regular Cooperation Mechanism (BRBR). The mechanism was established by ICBC which took the lead under the guidance of the People’s Bank of China during the First Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2017 and was the only achievement initiated by a commercial institution on the official list of achievements of the Forum. So far, the number of BRBR members and observers has reached 164 institutions in 71 countries and regions. The mechanism has provided strong support to the optimization and provision of Belt and Road financial supply and the development of an international multilateral financial cooperation platform with high standards.