On November 10, 2015, the China Foreign Exchange Trading System (“CFETS”) launched direct trading of the yuan against the Swiss franc. ICBC successfully obtained the market-making qualification for direct RMB-CHF trading on the interbank foreign exchange market, becoming one of first permitted to do so, and completed the first RMB-CHF spot transaction soon after the opening of the market.

An ICBC official said that direct RMB-CHF trading would not only lower exchange costs, simplify operational procedures, but also facilitate bilateral trade and investment, and promote the cross-border use of RMB.

Market makers of the interbank foreign exchange market refer to market participants approved by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to continuously provide bid/ask prices for transactions between RMB and foreign currencies to market members, and provide liquidity in the market through their own trading behaviors. In recent years, ICBC has actively developed forex market-making transactions based on customer demands, and won the honor of “Best Market Maker” granted by CFETS for four straight years, as the only Chinese commercial bank with the market maker qualification for all directly trading currencies in the interbank foreign exchange market. So far, the Bank can quote prices for nine directly trading currencies including EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, NZD, SGD, CHF, RUB and MYR, with transaction types covering spot, forward and swap transactions.