BOC: Trailblazer and pacesetter of China's financial globalization

As a Chinese bank with the longest history and the highest level of globalization, Bank of China, based on its advantages in overseas operational network and leveraging its decades of experience in serving international economic exchanges, has played a crucial role in promoting China's high-level opening-up.

While integrating with the nation's various initiatives for opening-up, the bank, as one of the country's major trailblazers in globalization, has also witnessed its own high-quality development over the decades.

BOC was founded in February 1912 and it started its globalized operations almost at the very beginning.

Since 1929 when BOC established its first overseas representative office in London, the United Kingdom, the bank has been on a journey of globalization for nearly a century.

A recent development in BOC's globalization move was that its branch bank in the Middle East country of Saudi Arabia became operational in the nation's capital of Riyadh on Sept 5. This marked that the total number of countries with BOC operations reached 64, including 44 countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Leveraging its globalized network of operations, BOC has built a bridge for trade, investment, economic and cultural exchanges between China and the world.

Capitalizing on its professional advantages in serving foreign exchanges and trade, BOC has offered comprehensive services to a number of famed international trade shows in China, including the China International Import Expo in Shanghai, the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, the China Import and Export Fair — or Canton Fair — in Guangzhou, the China International Consumer Products Expo in Hainan, and the China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, Fujian province.

In addition, the bank was deeply involved in this year's meeting for Chinese and French entrepreneurs held in June in France and was the sole financial service provider for the China-Central Asia Summit held in Xi'an in May.

Promoting RMB globalization

As a major provider of renminbi cross-border services, BOC has spared no efforts in assisting the Chinese currency's globalization, promoting the development of overseas RMB markets and improving related infrastructure.

By the end of June, BOC ranked first among all participating banks of the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System in terms of market share, network coverage and other indexes.

Meanwhile, it had opened 1,438 cross-border RMB interbank current accounts for clients of agency banks in 112 countries and regions, making it the leader among domestic peers. In addition, BOC is a global leader in terms of RMB clearing and settlement volumes.

BOC has also enriched its portfolio of RMB-related services for overseas investors, offering them options including bond investment, exchanges, currency hedging and custody.

BOC is an important player in promoting the opening-up of China's capital market.

One of its efforts is to draw overseas institutions to invest in China's capital market. BOC is one of the leaders in China's financial industry in offering custody service to qualified foreign institutional investors and in offering agency service to overseas central banks or similar institutions.

It is worth mentioning that BOC has ranked first for 10 consecutive years in the underwriting volume of Panda Bonds on the interbank market, and it has ranked first for eight consecutive years in the underwriting volume of China's offshore bonds.

Serving the BRI

BOC has been actively engaged in promoting international cooperation in the framework of the BRI by offering crucial financial support. It has offered fundraising and comprehensive financial services for a number of projects relating to the construction of international economic cooperation corridors; transport and communication infrastructure; and energy and resource development facilities.

The landmark BRI-related projects that have been financially backed by BOC since the beginning of this year included the Bukhara wind power facility in Uzbekistan, Chancay Port in Peru and the East Coast Railway in Malaysia.

By the end of June, BOC had granted credit lines to more than 1,000 projects under construction in countries and regions involved in the BRI, with an accumulative amount surpassing $290 billion.

Green development worldwide is another focus of BOC's global operations. Leveraging its advantages in financial services and network, the bank has carried out and strengthened international cooperation in the green and low-carbon industries, aiming to promote sustainable development of countries and regions it serves. BOC now ranks first among Chinese banks in terms of the volume of sustainability-related loans.

One of the milestone green projects that received BOC's support is the above-mentioned Bukhara wind power facility, which, with an installed generation capacity of 1 gigawatts, is the largest single-plant wind power project in Central Asia.

High-quality opening-up

BOC is also a firm support of China's national strategies for high-quality opening-up.

One example is its involvement in the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It has enhanced its financial support in the fields of scientific and technological innovation, connectivity infrastructure construction, industrial transformation, environmental protection and livelihood improvement in the Bay Area. By the end of June, the loan balance of major BOC outlets in the Bay Area reached 4.4 trillion yuan ($602 billion).

The Hainan Free Trade Port is another program that has received strong support from BOC. By the end of June, the bank has granted credit lines worth about 81 billion yuan to support the construction of key projects including industrial facilities and development zones.

In the field of international financial governance, BOC has taken part in the stipulation of international standards and rules for the industry, contributing Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the sustainable development of global financial industry.

The bank has actively promoted China's business opportunities leveraging its global connections. It has frequently organized business matchmaking events to facilitate international trade, investment and economic exchanges.

BOC has also tapped into new models for overseas regional management. BOC Hong Kong, for instance, is the regional headquarters targeting the operational coordination of outlets in nine Southeast Asian countries. BOC Europe, as the intermediate parent undertaking regional headquarters in Europe, recently set up a service-sharing center to strengthen regional management on the continent. Similar coordinative development schemes have also been launched in Latin America, South Asia and the South Pacific region.