On September 17, 2015, PBoC officially announced its authorization to ICBC (Argentina) to serve as the RMB clearing bank in Argentina. The designation will not only enhance ICBC’s service capacity in South America, but also promote the cross-border use of RMB in Argentina and across Latin America. So far, ICBC has become the overseas RMB clearing bank designated by the PBC in Singapore, Luxembourg, Qatar, Canada, Thailand and Argentina, and the only commercial bank that can provide round-the-clock RMB trading and clearing services worldwide.

As a nation with solid comprehensive strength in Latin America, Argentina is long reputed as the “granary of the world”, and wields significant influence on peripheral countries. With the rapid development of bilateral trade between the two countries in recent years, China has become Argentina’s second biggest trading partner, biggest destination of agricultural exports and third biggest investor. In July 2014, China and Argentina renewed a currency swap agreement worth RMB70 billion. In 2014 and 2015, the heads of state of both countries exchanged high-level visits, lifting bilateral relations to the level of “comprehensive strategic partnership”, and creating a favorable environment for boosting trade and economic exchanges and cooperation between each other, as well as for enterprises from both countries.

ICBC completed the acquisition of an 80% stake in Standard Bank Argentina S.A. in November 2012, which marked its official entry into the Argentine market. This was the first acquisition of a financial institution in Latin America, as well as the first overseas acquisition of a truly mainstream commercial bank by a Chinese bank. By relying on its 103 branches spreading across the major areas of Argentina, ICBC (Argentina) has provided a full range of licensed financial services to over one million individual and corporate customers, including over 70% of the local major group customers, over 80% of the local major corporate customers, and 120 “Fortune Global 500” companies with local operations.