Exactly five years ago, China Construction Bank opened its Zurich branch with the aim of establishing a renminbi hub. In the meantime, this institution has handled transactions worth almost 600 billion Swiss francs. Where do things go from here?
China Construction Bank (CCB) officially opened its Zurich branch on January 14, 2016. In the five years since then, the institution has supported companies from Switzerland and China in establishing and expanding their business activities in the respective countries.
On behalf of the Central Bank of the People's Republic of China (PBoC), CCB has also established the renminbi hub in Switzerland since 2016 and has since been developing cross-border business with the Chinese currency in Switzerland as a clearing bank for the renminbi.
Diverse Tasks
Since its opening, the hub has recorded a transaction volume of 4,300 billion yuan (about 590 billion Swiss francs), of which around 2,600 billion yuan was accounted for in 2020 alone, the institution said. The hub today has 13 Swiss partner banks.
As a Chinese bank in Switzerland, CCB's Zurich branch focuses on providing first-class financial services to Swiss companies operating in China, Swiss import and export companies, Chinese companies operating in Switzerland, and Swiss and international financial institutions.
Driving Growth
CCB's first step, starting in 2016, was to establish business relationships with a majority of SMI companies as well as SPI companies and leading financial service providers. In the last two years, the bank has also expanded its activity with smaller and medium-sized companies. Among other things, CCB launched its digital «Match Plus» trading platform for corporate clients in Switzerland in 2020.
CCB plans to continue to drive growth in Switzerland. Priorities will be to offer RMB transactions and services to Swiss companies doing business with China, and to work with Swiss-based financial service providers to offer them more RMB investment opportunities, as well as to broker access to China's capital markets.
More Than Just Commercial Concerns
«As the operator of the renminbi hub, we have a responsibility for the economic and social relationship between Switzerland and China that goes far beyond purely commercial concerns,» said David Gong, general manager of CCB Zurich branch, who set up the branch and has been running it ever since.
