OREANDA-NEWS. April 29, 2014. The National Bank of Cambodia, the Central Bank of Cambodia, officially approved Phnom Penh Branch of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China(ICBC) as the RMB business clearing bank in Cambodia.

The Branch will provide local banking peers with comprehensive RMB clearing services including RMB account management, local inter-bank RMB clearing, cross-border RMB capital settlement, liquidity support and inter-bank RMB capital market services. This is the third country following Singapore and Laos where ICBC became the RMB business clearing bank upon the approval from the regulatory authority.

An official from ICBC stated that Phnom Penh Branch has been devoted to developing RMB business among local peers and the Central Bank of Cambodia since its establishment in November 2011, playing an active role in serving the economic and financial ties between China and Cambodia and promoting Cambodia's economic growth. The approval on ICBC as the RMB clearing bank in Cambodia fully indicated the importance attached by local regulatory authority to cross-border RMB business and its substantial recognition on ICBC’s strength in RMB business. Next, ICBC will take this as an opportunity to provide more comprehensive, efficient, quick and convenient RMB services to local customers in Cambodia.

As the largest bank engaging in RMB business over the world, ICBC has continuously expanded its advantages in RMB business from domestic market to overseas markets in recent years. It constantly increased global financial service capability, further improved its global RMB clearing network, and formed cross-border RMB business operating platform with diversified channels, rich products and high efficiency. Statistics indicated that in 2013, ICBC conducted cross-border RMB businesses amounting to over RMB2.1 trillion, an increse of nearly 40% over the previous year.

Since the launch of the business in 2009, ICBC has conducted an accumulated amount of RMB5 trillion cross-border RMB businesses, which forcefully promoted the cross-border use of RMB. Singapore Branch, as the first RMB clearing bank in foreign countries designated by the People’s Bank of China, has been operating steadily for nine months since its opening in May last year till the end of February this year. It has conducted more than 89,000 transactions of RMB receipt and payment businesses in total, with an amount of RMB6.8 trillion. This year in particular, ICBC's RMB clearing bank in Singapore has realized a “growth spurt”, with the clearing amount in the first two months reaching RMB4.2 trillion, exceeding the total amount of last year, which strongly promoted and supported the rapid and healthy development of the offshore RMB market in Singapore.