OREANDA-NEWS.  January 16, 2013. IFR Asia (International Financing Review Asia) announced the winners of the IFR Asia Awards 2012 at its website. ICBC fought off fierce competition to pick up the award for "China Bond House of the Year", reported the press-centre of ICBC.  

For the first time IFR Asia presents the award to a Chinese commercial bank, marking ICBC the only commercial bank from China to win the award. This is the third international award to ICBC in 2012 for its excellence in bond underwriting service. (The two other awards are "Most Impressive Bond Underwriter" by Euroweek and "Best Bond Underwriting Bank in China" by Global Finance.)

IFR Asia is an international respected financial publication. Every year, the magazine screens out the best deals and best companies in overseas capital markets. The IFR Awards are one of the most coveted by overseas investment banking firms. A number of factors were considered in accessing this year's mainstream investment banks in Asia markets. These included underwriting scale, growth, competitiveness and team skills. The result was used in the final ranking for Bond House of the year.

Highlighting the Bank's success in bond underwriting, IFR Asia said: Being a leading bond underwriter in China, ICBC provides a full range of services for Chinese issuers of different backgrounds to raise capital. Besides underwriting bonds for Chinese clients, ICBC has also emerged as a player in the international bond markets.

Winning the award shows the stellar result of ICBC in bond underwriting over the past one year. Far from resting on its laurels, ICBC team will draw up the experience and prepare for more challenges, said an ICBC executive.