OREANDA-NEWS. April 19, 2013. ICBC issued the first tranche of "2013 ICBC securities backed by a pool of credit assets through securitization" in the nationwide interbank market, to a sum of around RMB 3.6 billion. Investors were eager to subscribe on the day of offering, and the asset-backed securities have been nearly twice over-subscribed on average. Being the first asset-backed security (ABS) in the 2013 market, the successful issuance paves the way for securitization of credit assets in the next phase.

ICBC has issued three tranches of asset-backed securities since 2007. Since then, the Bank has accumulated rich experience in system upgrade, workflow design, staff placement and set-up of rules, which is essential for the asset securitization pilot. Meanwhile, ICBC being the first bank to launch ABS has made incessant efforts over the past few years to improve its risk management, leading to good quality of credit assets and higher confidence from investors.

Industry insiders commented that, credit asset securitization allows commercial banks to better serve real economy since it offers many benefits: provide more investment choices in capital market, raise the percentage of capital raised directly, optimize the capital-raising structure in financial market, connect the credit system with securities market and improve the efficiency of financial asset allocation, which can help banks better support the development of the real economy.