BOC leverages the opening-up of Chinese capital markets to grow into a more internationalized and multifunctional bank.

Considered as the most globalized Chinese bank, Bank of China (BOC) provides a wide range of financial services for clients across onshore and offshore China as well as more than 64 countries and regions. The strong cross-border business franchise has made BOC the top choice for customers with related business.

The bank continues to assist high-quality issuers in the onshore and offshore financial markets, thus fulfilling its mission of showcasing to the world the value of Chinese credit. BOC offers comprehensive financial, investment and wealth management products to individual, corporate and institutional clients. Its flagship products include cross-border bonds such as offshore and panda bonds.

In 2024, BOC again secured the first place in the offshore China bond market, marking the ninth straight year that the bank has clinched the industry’s top accolade. As of 20th November 2024, BOC has underwritten 102 deals amounting to US$2.92 billion and covered 56.04% of the total deals during the year. Recognized for its innovation abilities, BOC provides a full range of services in the debt capital market, including offering a variety of products in US dollar, euro, offshore renminbi, Hong Kong dollar, Macau pataca, Singapore dollar and Australian dollar. BOC successfully helped China Huaneng, China National Petroleum, Aluminum Corp of China, China Development Bank, Henan Investment Group, Wuhan Metro, and other institutions in coming back to the offshore market in 2024.

The bank aims to effectively build a bridge straddling the domestic and international markets through its leading underwriting services and selling abilities. The bank was lead underwriter for the Ministry of Finance of China in its USD-denominated sovereign bond in Riyadh and EUR-denominated sovereign bond in Paris. It reflected China’s determination to promote high-level financial opening-up to the world and improve the pricing benchmark for Chinese issuers. Especially for the USD bond, it is the first issuance in the Middle East, the first sovereign issuer to issue bonds and raise funds in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and it achieved successful issuance at a price closest to the USD benchmark interest rate in history. These three “firsts” gave this issuance even more special significance. Besides, Bank of China, as the only Chinese underwriter in the deal, brought in orders from several Asian investors including sovereign institutions, funds, and asset management firms, assisted Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to issue a US$3.5 billion senior unsecured sukuk bond.

BOC has also brought to market a series of innovative solutions, including traditional international fixed income products that meet local regulatory requirements. BOC printed the World’s first Belt and Road Initiative (“BRI”) partner sustainability notes, which were issued through its Macau, Hungary and Panama branches. It is another innovative issuance for Bank of China to help jointly build the BRI partner countries in terms of livelihood improvement and green development, also fully support the eight major steps China will take to the BRI partner construction. Also, Bank of China, as the joint global coordinator, assisted China National Petroleum Corporation in successfully pricing 1 billion yuan of Hainan Free Trade Port offshore RMB bonds, with a tenor of two years and yield of 2.6%.

BOC is also a pioneer and leader in the green bond market. It has underwritten offshore green bonds amounting to more than 436.61 billion yuan as of 20th November 2024, topping the list of Chinese underwriters. Also, the Bank of China Frankfurt branch successfully issued the world‘s first SGS (sustainability-linked, green and social loans) bond. This deal marks the world’s first SGS bond, and also is the first drawdown under the Bank of China’s SGS bond framework, representing a new innovation in the bank’s bond issuance strategies.

Since the Panda bond market reopened in 2014, BOC has dominated the underwriting league table and driven product innovation through significant issuance milestones. In 2024, the bank continued its market leadership, ranking first in the China interbank Panda bond market with a share exceeding 25% (as of November 15th). This year, BOC introduced several notable issuers to the onshore market: BASF Group and Bayer Aktiengesellschaft, both Fortune 500 companies from Germany, made their debuts in June. BOC also assisted Shangri-La Group with its debut issuance, making it the first Hong Kong-listed hospitality company to enter the Panda bond market. Last but not the least, BOC supported Suzano, a world-leading Brazilian pulp producer, in issuing its 1.2 billion yuan green Panda bond, the first issuer from South America and the first corporate Panda bond from the Americas.

Leveraging its globalized and integrated financial service network, BOC has managed to set up a multinational franchise for clients – mobilizing the bond underwriting and distribution capabilities of its teams in Hong Kong, London, Singapore and Luxembourg.

With the ongoing reform and opening-up of the Chinese capital market, BOC will seize the opportunity to grow into a more internationalized and multifunctional bank, contribute to create a more resilient, well-functioning, international and globally coherent debt capital market environment in China.