The Outline of the National "Fifteenth Five Year Plan" emphasizes that we should expand high-level opening up, promote comprehensive deepening of reform, continue to shape new advantages in international cooperation and competition, and provide continuous strong support for the stability and long-term development of Chinese path to modernization.

As an important promoter of high-level opening-up, cross-border finance undertakes the important mission of connecting domestic and international dual circulation and supporting the global layout and development of Chinese enterprises.

As one of the earliest joint-stock commercial banks in China to engage in cross-border financial business, China CITIC Bank adheres to the national high-level opening-up strategy and always insists on serving the real economy as its purpose. It provides comprehensive cross-border financial services to customers, supports enterprises to sail overseas, and injects strong financial empowerment into deepening economic and trade relations between China and the global economy.

As of the end of June this year, the balance of overseas loans of CITIC Bank reached 171.034 billion yuan, an increase of 30.74% compared to the end of last year, ranking among the top in terms of growth rate among joint-stock banks.

Behind this achievement is China CITIC Bank's active response to national policies and strategies, with the 4S service concept of "professional, fast, flexible, and secure", continuously making efforts in customer service, product innovation, and digital upgrading, steadily promoting the development of international business in both quantity and quality, and comprehensively building a high-quality operation and development system for cross-border financial business.

The unique endowment of "full financial license and wide industrial coverage" of CITIC Group is where the differentiated competitiveness of CITIC Bank's cross-border finance lies. China CITIC Bank is anchoring the goal of "building a leading cross-border service bank", firmly implementing the national high-level opening-up strategy, grasping the historical opportunity of RMB internationalization and the "the Belt and Road" construction, giving full play to the group's synergy advantages, and taking cross-border "settlement+transaction+financing+financing" comprehensive services as the cornerstone, striving to build a cross-border financial product map and service system covering the whole chain, whole scene, and whole life cycle of enterprise globalization layout, so as to help Chinese path to modernization achieve at an early date.

Cracking the pain points of cross-border business operations for enterprises and empowering high-quality development of foreign trade

In the current context of accelerated restructuring of the global economic landscape and intensified international geopolitical games, foreign trade, as a key hub connecting domestic and international dual circulation, its stability is related to the resilience of national economic development.

Expanding high-level opening-up to the outside world is not only a strategic choice for China to hedge against external environmental uncertainty, but also an inevitable requirement for building a new development pattern.

In the eyes of industry insiders, to expand high-level opening up to the outside world, it is necessary to effectively address the multiple challenges faced by foreign trade enterprises in their daily operations. Especially under multiple pressures such as the deep adjustment of global industrial and supply chains, the divergence of monetary policies in major economies, and the rise of trade protectionism, foreign trade enterprises are facing pain points such as intensified exchange rate fluctuations, high financing costs, and low efficiency of fund settlement.

In recent years, China CITIC Bank has taken "serving the national strategy" as its mission, with transaction services as the link, focusing on the core needs of enterprise exchange rate hedging and fund exchange, deepening the iteration of online platforms and the interconnection of financial markets, creating an agile and efficient cross-border transaction service ecosystem, and focusing on solving a series of pain points, blockages, and challenges in the development process of foreign trade enterprises, injecting stronger vitality into the high-quality development of the foreign trade industry.

In terms of settlement, China CITIC Bank leverages its professional advantages and launches the "Hundred Country Smooth Exchange" series of products, targeting emerging markets such as Africa, the Americas, and Southeast Asia, providing a full range of services including settlement, guarantees, letters of credit, and more, targeting multiple countries and currencies. At present, China CITIC Bank can achieve 140+currency remittances and 50+currency remittances, fully matching the special needs of enterprises in various scenarios.

In response to the challenges commonly encountered by foreign trade enterprises, such as intensified exchange rate fluctuations and expanded exchange rate risks, China CITIC Bank has launched an online foreign exchange trading platform - "Foreign Exchange Trading Platform", with the service goal of "full functionality, full online, and full time", providing professional exchange rate risk management solutions for foreign trade enterprises. By connecting to the "Foreign Exchange Trading Platform" in one place, enterprises can handle foreign exchange hedging services on the entire line, greatly reducing time and exchange rate risk management costs. As of the end of June, the number of contracted enterprises on the Foreign Exchange Trading Platform reached 14568, with a cumulative foreign exchange transaction scale of 225.469 billion US dollars, which greatly assisted foreign trade enterprises in effectively avoiding exchange rate risks.

In terms of financing, China CITIC Bank has launched cross-border financial product services to address the long-term pain points of high financing costs faced by foreign trade enterprises. It provides sufficient and low-cost trade financing services to eligible foreign trade enterprises, achieving full financing. At the same time, CITIC Bank also encourages branches with conditions to create differentiated, distinctive, and risk controllable trade financing innovative products or solutions based on the characteristics of the foreign trade industry operating environment in their jurisdiction, injecting a continuous stream of "financial vitality" into the sustainable development of foreign trade enterprises.

Nowadays, cross-border e-commerce has become a new engine for China to expand its foreign trade. Faced with the opportunities and challenges of industry development, CITIC Bank has conducted in-depth industry research and integrated multi format service capabilities with a global perspective based on more than ten years of industry service experience. It has innovatively launched three major product systems: "Cross border Treasure," "Comprehensive Service Treasure," and "Zhihui Treasure." It has built a comprehensive financial service system for cross-border e-commerce that covers export enterprises, payment institutions, foreign comprehensive service platforms, e-commerce platforms, and other scenarios, customer groups, and channels, and has been widely favored and highly praised by the market. As of the end of June, the cross-border e-commerce transaction scale of CITIC Bank has exceeded 20 billion US dollars, providing safer and more efficient comprehensive financial services to help foreign trade enterprises set sail and contribute CITIC's strength to the high-quality development of new business models.

Building comprehensive cross-border financial services to 'escort' Chinese enterprises to set sail overseas

With the continuous deepening of economic and trade exchanges between China and the world, coupled with the deep adjustment of global industrial and supply chains, more and more Chinese enterprises are no longer satisfied with exporting and selling products overseas. They have set up production bases, regional headquarters, research and development centers overseas, and even built supply chain systems and localized operation networks covering multiple countries.

The continuous promotion of globalization by Chinese enterprises has also spurred the upgrading of cross-border finance from single financing to comprehensive services.

China CITIC Bank has keenly grasped the new trend of enterprises going global, driven by comprehensive financing, focusing on various scenarios of enterprises going global, relying on non resident account systems and free trade zone (port) platforms, building a multi-level cross-border financing service matrix, providing comprehensive cross-border financial services, and helping domestic enterprises enter the international market.

In the stage of overseas construction of enterprises, CITIC Bank helped enterprises to "take root" with medium and long-term financing tools such as export credit, overseas fixed asset loans, cross-border syndicated loans, and has successively participated in projects in Egypt, Angola, Cameroon, Benin and other countries along the "the Belt and Road". During the production and operation phase, China CITIC Bank provides products such as cross-border direct loans, domestic guarantees, and foreign loans to ensure the daily business turnover of enterprises; In the stage of upgrading the industrial chain, cross-border mergers and acquisitions financing and other services are provided to support enterprises in achieving a leap in the global value chain.

In response to the comprehensive financial needs of large multinational enterprises going global, China CITIC Bank has launched a comprehensive cross-border financial service solution of "cross-border fund pool+global cash management+foreign exchange funds+supply chain financing", providing online and multi-channel cross-border financial services, covering customers' overseas branches in 77 countries.

Chinese enterprises going overseas not only need to cross geographical distance, but also have a comprehensive understanding of overseas policies, business environment, laws and regulations, financial and tax compliance management requirements, and localized operating conditions. To this end, China CITIC Bank actively takes the integration of intelligence and empowerment as the guide, integrates domestic and foreign professional resources, pre embeds in the entire life cycle of enterprises' "going global", and creates a non-financial value-added service platform.

In the first half of this year, China CITIC Bank relied on its professional cross-border service team to integrate domestic and foreign law firms, accounting firms, third-party consulting firms and other resources, providing international legal, global tax planning, financial consulting, commercial landing and other consulting services to numerous enterprises planning to go abroad. This helped them to have a more comprehensive understanding of the legal and tax, financial compliance management requirements, financing conditions and business environment of overseas markets, and helped more Chinese funded enterprises embark on a better, more stable and faster journey of globalization.

Taking multiple measures to promote the internationalization of the Renminbi to a higher level

At present, the RMB has become the largest settlement currency for China's external payments, the second largest trade financing currency in the world, and the third largest payment currency. The "15th Five Year Plan for Reform and Development" of the People's Bank of China proposes to steadily promote high-level financial opening up to the outside world. Promote the internationalization of the Renminbi and expand its use in international trade and investment and financing.

China CITIC Bank is committed to actively guiding enterprises to expand the scale of cross-border use of RMB, and enhancing the acceptance and influence of RMB in the international market. In the first six months of this year, the cross-border RMB revenue and expenditure of China CITIC Bank's goods trade reached 187.64 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 49.24%.

In the eyes of industry insiders, banks are not only witnesses but also builders in the process of RMB internationalization. The continuous promotion of RMB internationalization can not only help foreign trade enterprises and overseas enterprises better avoid exchange rate risks and improve fund settlement efficiency, but also provide global investors with new asset diversification options, allowing them to effectively hedge against the current international geopolitical risk escalation and the rise of global trade protectionism through more diversified asset allocation. However, to further expand the application of RMB in international trade payment settlement, investment and financing, and asset allocation, it is necessary to build a more complete RMB cross-border payment financial infrastructure network on a global scale.

In recent years, CITIC Bank has actively invited banks of countries along the "the Belt and Road" to open accounts in CITIC Bank and handle cross-border RMB business, providing strong support for the popularization of RMB in more countries and regions.

Chinese enterprises are actively "going global" and the cross-border application scenarios of RMB continue to increase, creating broader development prospects for banks' financial market business, custody business, investment banking business, and cross-border financial settlement business.

In the face of new opportunities for development, CITIC Bank will further expand the scale of cross-border local and foreign currency settlement, improve professional service capabilities, meet the diversified cross-border financial needs of enterprises, and make greater contributions to China's high-level opening up and Chinese path to modernization by relying on the synergy advantages brought by CITIC Group's "full financial license and wide industrial coverage", as well as the deep cultivation and rich operating experience of cross-border financial services in the past 40 years.