OREANDA-NEWS. July 06, 2012. Agricultural Bank of China Limited (ABC) accelerated its construction of its Integrated Clearing System, strengthened overseas product marketing and operational support, and actively promoted the development of the RMB and foreign currency clearing business. By the end of February 2012, 15 domestic branches of ABC had already cleared USD transfers to ABC's Seoul Branch, including branches in Qingdao, Shandong and Henan branches To date, over 750 transactions of USD payment to or from South Korea have been processed, for a combined total of USD660 million, reported the press-centre of ABC. 

To build the brand of China-South Korea USD clearing, ABC has flexibly adapted to synergies of domestic and international markets, and also stepped up marketing to local banks in South Korea. For example, ABC Seoul Branch rapidly opened accounts with local banks to market the service of USD transfer to ABC branches in China, ensuring that Chinese customers' payments from or to South Korea are processed through ABC Seoul Branch. At the same time, the Head Office and branches of ABC have all committed to improving the service quality by tracking the entire process of each remittance, establishing quick inquiry channels, and achieving a turn-around time of one hour for China-Korea remittances.

To support the USD clearing business launched by Seoul Branch, the Clearing Center of ABC Head Office developed a support plan, set up a support team, spent two months upgrading the foreign exchange clearing system, and then rolled out the module of "Foreign Currency Clearing Business of Overseas Branches". Simultaneously, the Clearing Center developed SWIFT message format for money transfers to ABC Seoul Branch based on careful analysis of critical procedures such as payment paths, accounting treatment, and reconciliation methods to guarantee effective operation of the new process and mode of China-Korea USD clearing business. Finally, it assisted Seoul Branch in the pricing of clearing products through in-depth research on rates and pricing strategy of similar USD clearing businesses and finally established the basis for fee deduction.

In recent years, ABC has devoted great efforts to clearing business management and thereby further improved its foreign currency clearing capacity. ABC's foreign currency straight through processing (STP) ratio exceeded 99%, leading the entire Chinese banking industry. In 2011, the Clearing Center of ABC Head Office processed 15.68 million transactions, a year-on-year increase of 6.93%; and the cleared funds amounted to RMB368 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 24.34%. ABC’s clearing business is a growing contributor to the continuing rapid business development of the whole bank.