On November 29, Bank of China and the China National Committee of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC China) jointly held the “First Symposium on International Services Cooperation among Chinese Banks” at the Head Office Building of the Bank. This is the first high-level and large-scale cooperation seminar in the field of international services in China’s banking sector in recent years, and the meeting’s central topic for discussion is comparison of the operation and management models of banks’ international settlement services and development trend study. The persons in charge of international services from 15 major Chinese-capital Banks in the country attended the meeting including Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Bank of Communications, Export & Import Bank of China and China Merchants Bank.
Ms. Zhang Yanling, a senior expert of international services in China’s banking sector, Vice Chairperson of ICC Banking Commission and Vice President of Bank of China, attended the meeting and gave a speech. Zhang Yanling said that the rapid development of China’s foreign trade and changing market demands provided huge development space for the international settlement services of banks, meanwhile the competition among banks was becoming increasingly fierce. She pointed out that Chinese banks should have a long-term perspective, and strengthen cooperation and exchange in the business areas such as information sharing, product research and development, customer service and risk participation while competing in an orderly manner to jointly contribute to the national interests and healthy development of China’s banking sector.
Representatives from each bank introduced the current status of operation and management models of international settlement services respectively, and conducted heated discussion on future business development trend, focusing on exchanging experiences in the areas such as the centralized processing of bills and documents, division of duties in the marketing of international settlement products, assessment of international settlement departments, and credit extension in the form of trade financing.
The inter-bank cooperation mechanism on international services of Chinese banks was set up in 2004 under the framework of ICC China. At present, it consists of 15 member banks including the four state-owned commercial banks, policy banks and joint-stock commercial banks, and many cooperation projects have been carried out. In order to deepen and broaden this exchange and cooperation, member banks agreed to hold special-topic symposium on a regular basis to strengthen the coordination and cooperation among member banks in the area of international settlement through discussion on the hot topics of international settlement and trade financing services and exchange of product innovation and business experiences etc., so as to jointly cultivate a healthy and orderly market environment and make contributions to the development of international settlement and trade financing services of China’s banking sector.
Bank of China sponsored the first special-topic meeting, which clearly manifested its leading position in the international settlement business. Representatives thought that this symposium was inspiring and directive in the development of international settlement services. The time and venue for the second symposium were also agreed upon at the meeting.
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