Bank of China sets up forfaiting and commodity units in Singapore

The lender is the first from China to offer the services overseas.

Bank of China Limited (BOC), one of the largest Chinese banks, on Thursday announced the setting up of their first overseas forfaiting and commodity finance units in Singapore. It is also the first time that a Chinese commercial bank has established such businesses overseas.

The two business units have been set up to cater to companies who are benefiting from the booming commodity trade and trade finance secondary market in Singapore, according toa an SPH report.

“Singapore is located in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region and has played a strategically important role in the commodity trade, so it was a natural choice to start our first overseas forfaiting and commodity finance units here,” said Mr. Yue Yi, Executive Vice President of BOC.

He added: “BOC has had a presence in Singapore since 1936, and played a significant role in promoting bilateral economic linkages. These latest offerings from BOC will add significant breadth and depth to our existing businesses including deposits and loans, trade finance, credit cards, treasury transactions, and wealth management. They will also boost trade between the two countries as well as between China and the ASEAN region.”

At a launch event on Thursday, officiated by Mr. Wei Wei, Chinese Ambassador to Singapore and Ms. Kathy Lai, Assistant Chief Executive Officer of International Enterprise Singapore, BOC Singapore signed its first Commodity Finance Strategic Partnership Agreement with Unipec Singapore, an oil trading company which is a unit of Sinopec, the national oil company of China.