ICBC will issue as an agent, the second OTC CDB bond in 2016 to personal customers and non-financial institutions from March 4 to March 8 (excluding Saturday and Sunday). The Financial Bond of China Development Bank (Tranche 9, 2016) to be issued is a one-year fixed-rate interest-bearing bond with the code of 160209 and a nominal interest rate of 2.29%. Customers can subscribe for the bond through ICBC’s e-banking channels and outlets, in which, 24/7 services will be provided on e-banking channels during the period.

According to an ICBC official, customers only need to designate a fund account for bond trading and opens a bond custody account by logging in to the Internet banking system or mobile banking system of ICBC or at any outlet of the Bank to complete the subscription for the OTC CDB bond. For example, a personal customer can enter the “online bond” column after logging in to the Internet banking system, click “buy” at the right side of bonds to be subscribed in the section of “market and trading”, and finish subscription as instructed. The bond will be traded in the market after the period of bond issue. Customers will be able to buy or sell the bond at any time during trading hours via ICBC’s e-banking channels or outlets, with the trading funds settled on a real-time basis. Meanwhile, the customers subscribing for the bond in the period can also participate in the activity “Gift for New Bond Subscription”, and then they will get a chance to win RMB2,000 worth of voucher for ICBC e-Buy online mall..

The OTC CDB bond features high credit rating, good security and low threshold, with both the threshold amount and minimum incremental amount of RMB 100 in par value, which can effectively satisfy the needs of the public for investment in safe and transparent bond products generating moderate earnings. Since CDB’s bond was offered for the first time via counters of commercial banks in May 2014, ICBC has distributed 10 issues of OTC CDB bonds as an agent. As the commercial bank OTC bond market is playing an increasingly important role in the bond distribution, the distribution of OTC CDB bonds has become normalized, which has positive implications in the expansion of issuers’ financing channels, reduction of financing costs and construction of a multi-layered bond market system.