China

Chinese lender Shengjing Bank is planning to issue its first ever international bond in offshore Renminbi, the company revealed on March 25.

Deutsche Bank was awarded the biggest ever single quota for the Renminbi Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (RQFII) scheme on March 26, its Rmb6bn ($966m) taking the total allocated size of the programme to Rmb330bn at 111 firms.

China is considering simplifying the processes and restrictions related to its Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) and Renminbi-QFII schemes, according to Nicole Yuen, Greater China COO for Credit Suisse.

Upgrading the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect will ultimately make its investment proposition the one to beat for investors looking to China, according to Credit Suisse bankers at a conference on March 25.

IL&FS Transportation Networks has wrapped up its third outing to the offshore renminbi (CNH) bond market, successfully raising proceeds to repay an outstanding debt that comes up for redemption at the end of April. This time the issuer enhanced the credit support with a guarantee from its onshore parent.

Crédit Agricole priced its debut renminbi offering in Taiwan on March 20, while Yuanta Bank returned with a new two year bond a day earlier, adding two more deals to this year’s flurry of financial names tapping the Formosa market.

HSBC published on March 24 its yearly RMB internationalisation report. Among its key findings were the fact that usage of RMB dropped by a fifth, to 17% of respondents, although nearly a quarter of surveyed executives are considering using it in future.

Canada officially launched its renminbi settlement hub this week, after the country became the first RMB hub in the Americas in November last year.

Chinese green bonds came another step closer this week with the publication of two reports that outline recommendations for the sector while taking into account the specifics of the country’s bond and green energy sector. Suggestions include a new body to review existing and upcoming green standards, the provision of tax breaks and engaging municipal bonds in green bond issuance.

IL&FS Transportation Networks has returned to the offshore renminbi (CNH) debt market as ahead of its outstanding dim sum bond redeeming next month.

Clearstream, the international central securities depository of Deutsche Börse Group, is making further progress in its Asia strategy by opening offshore renminbi cash correspondent bank (CCB) accounts with Chinese banks based in Frankfurt, Luxembourg and Singapore.

The Bank of China (BoC) proprietary cross-border RMB index (CRI) fell by a sharp 8.2% in January 2015 on the back of first time net RMB inflows and reduced usage of RMB for trade settlement.