China Construction Bank International (CCBI) plans to step up its internationalisation by setting up an asset management firm in Singapore this year and will launch more yuan-denominated products abroad to support China's push for wider use of its currency, its chief executive said.
"The slower pace of yuan internationalisation is only temporary and the long-term trend is certainly for yuan internationalisation to continue," Hu Zhanghong, also chairman of CCBI, told Reuters.
"We'll further expand our yuan business amid this big trend and setting up a Singapore asset management firm this year probably will help with this though it also has other functions," Hu said, adding the date will depend on regulatory approval. The asset management firm in Singapore will be its first outside of Hong Kong. CCBI is the investment services flagship of the country's second-largest bank China Construction Bank and is a pioneer in taking offshore yuan products beyond Asia.
It launched the first Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor (RQFII) money market ETF denominated in yuan in the euro zone on Euronext Paris last June, soon after its first RQFII yuan ETF was listed on the London Stock Exchange in March.
The Chinese lender also sold 1 billion yuan ($154.5 million) of offshore yuan bonds in London late last year to broaden the investor base of the so-called dim sum bonds.
Hu said there was still room to improve yuan product trading globally by listing the same product in different time zones to make it available to investors 24 hours a day. "We'll consider launching relevant products in America at an appropriate time," Hu said.