OREANDA-NEWS. January 17, 2012. This year, ICBC will continue the launch of direct finance service to support economic restructuring and upgrade, the Bank told the reporter today. The focus is the offering of bond underwriting service to industry sectors of strategic emerging industry, cultural sector, advanced service industry, top small-and-medium enterprises and low-income housing constructions. The objective is to provide professional direct finance service to support the healthy and sustainable growth of real economy, reported the press-centre of ICBC.

In 2011, ICBC has underwritten 105 debt instruments involving short-term bonds, mid-term notes and super & short-term commercial papers to a total of more than RMB 260 billion, said an executive with the Bank. ICBC edged ahead of all bond underwriters in China by substantial margin, ranking No.1 in the league table. This is ICBC's fifth consecutive year as the largest bond underwriter in China.

Over the last few years, ICBC has always taken direct finance service as one key approach to support economic restructuring and industry upgrade. Range of bond underwriting services has been expanded considerably with more delivery on innovative direct finance products. With an aim to underwrite bonds to serve the growth of real economy, ICBC is now the largest bond underwriting financial institution in China in terms of offering size, product category and underwriting strength.

At present, ICBC has built a comprehensive, standard management system and business processing process for bond underwriting and issuance - a business operation mechanism closely connected, flexible response, highly efficient and professional. Also in place is a bond underwriting service team with staff dedicated to customer marketing, due diligence, pricing and sales, investment and trading, and follow-up services. The team is able to provide a full range of direct debt finance services for the issuers.

Meanwhile, ICBC places top priority on product innovation to support the growth of real economy. In 2010, the Bank has underwritten the first SME collective bills in China, an extension of underwriting service to small-and-medium enterprises. In May 2011, ICBC successfully underwrote the first private-placement bonds in China. Since October, 2011, ICBC has also successfully underwritten private-placement bonds in low-income housing projects of many companies including the Low-Income Housing Construction and Investment Center. The fund raised, a total of RMB 4.9 billion, has been a great support to the construction of many low-income housing projects.