Since the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII) promulgated the new registration and issuance rule for debt financing instruments (DFI) on February 19, ICBC has endeavored to implement classified management of bond issuance by opening green channel to quality issuers regarding qualification approval process and streamlining business procedure. As a result, ICBC has seen strong leadership in DFI market share with improved efficiency of direct financing and reduced financing cost. With ICBC as the lead manager, CNPC's RMB 15 billion medium-term notes (MTN) have been the largest DFI bond issuance in the market so far. Led by ICBC, China Unicom's DFI registration materials were completed within a week, creating a new speed record of registration submission by financial institution in China.

Following the rules of market orientation, standardization and transparency, the classified management of bond issuance is to differentiate issuers into type-1 and type-2 companies based on qualifications, historical disclosure of information, legality and compliance of operation as well as major financial indexes. Type-1 companies can make one-off registration of normal products such as SCP, CP, MTN and PN, with no need to register limit for each product and select issuance type, term and limit, enjoying underwriting, efficiency and convenience in issuance. Besides qualified type-1 companies, type-2 companies can also benefit from simplified approval procedure, higher registration and issuance efficiency, optimized information disclosure and reduced repetitive work.

According to an ICBC official, the Bank has been actively adapted to financial disintermediation and corporate deleveraging and accelerated the transformation of corporate banking businesses by leveraging the strength in full-suite and multi-license financing business system covering bond underwriting, financial lease and investment banking. The Bank has stepped up effort in direct financing to meet the financing needs of the real economy through multiple approaches. Over the first five months this year, ICBC underwrote over 520 bonds worldwide, raising over RMB 420 billion for the real economy.