Sunday, 14 October 2012 | 00:00
China’s top ship financing bank ICBC is becoming far more exposed to international trades and is looking to grow its base in Singapore having just received a full banking licence to operate in the Lion Republic.
ICBC currently has 30% pure domestic ship finance business, with fully 70% coming from overseas, albeit mainly Chinese conglomerates’ overseas affiliates.
“Most of our ship finance services are international business. Some big Chinese shipping companies, such as COSCO, China Shipping, they also have many multinational business handled by our bank,” an official from the ship finance department of ICBC told SinoShip News. “RMB and US dollar transactions are both ok to us,” he added.
A few days ago, ICBC received its full banking license from Singapore giving it greater access to the Singapore market. “Before we get the license, we already had branches in Singapore providing ship finance services. The new move could help us do better in the region,” the official said.
Source: Sino Ship News
