OREANDA-NEWS. April 06, 2011. Since 2009, Bank of China has offered full support to the "Go-Global" efforts of Chinese businesses by launching a number of financial services and products, particularly through better performance in syndicated lending, the issuance of letters of guarantee (L/Gs) denominated in foreign currencies, and RMB settlement in cross-border trade, reported the press-centre of Bank of China.

Ranking first in syndicated lending in Asia-Pacific region
The three syndicated loan centers overseas have successfully led to arrange a good number of syndicated loans with considerable market influence by coordinating regional resources. For example,  American Syndicated Loan Center led to raise a commercial mortgage of USD 800 million for the office buildings along the Park Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, New York City; its Asia-Pacific Syndicated Loan Center led to raise a syndicated loan of AUD 2.5 billion for the Origin Energy Limited of Australia. According to the statistics of Basis Point, a professional syndicated loan agency, Bank of China ranked first again among the syndicated loan arrangers in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) in 2010.

Outstanding strength in the issuance of L/Gs denominated in foreign currencies
By the end of 2010, the amount of funds incurred in the foreign currency denominated L/Gs of the bank had grown by 31.2% year on year, with the market share exceeding 50% among the four major state-owned commercial banks in China. Moreover, the bank had remained a leader in the industry in terms of the volume of business and market competitiveness.

Facilitating RMB settlement in cross-border trade
By the end of 2010, branches of the bank in China had handled, for more than 1,000 clients, over 5,000 RMB settlements in cross-border trade including letters of credit, remittance, and collection, involving over RMB 160 billion, as well as over 200 purchases/sales in RMB, involving more than RMB 3.9 billion. Besides, it had ranked first in the industry by the number of RMB settlements in cross-border trade, the number of companies involved and the volume of business.

The first Chinese bank to introduce "China Desk" in foreign banks
 In the March of 2010, its first China Desk, namely the "Bank of China-Bank Muscat China Desk", was launched in Oman and established good relationships with local Chinese-funded companies. Later on, China Desk was also introduced to Peru, the UAE, Ghana and other countries.