Clearstream’s role in RMB internationalisation awarded
Clearstream won the Editor’s award for innovation by the Global Custodian magazine in recognition of its role in the first RMB issuance in Luxembourg by Chinese banks.
Clearstream supported and facilitated this significant first European issuance by Bank of China Luxembourg of an offshore Renminbi "Schengen" bond onto the international market in May 2014 with a volume of RMB 1.5bn.
This issuance marked another major milestone in the issuance and development of the offshore Renminbi bond market in Europe and, as such, an important development in the internationalisation of the Renminbi. The internationalisation of the Renminbi pursued by the Chinese authorities is currently one of the most exciting developments in this space that Clearstream, as a core market infrastructure provider, has been supporting since the early days.
In addition to the Schengen bond in Luxembourg and Clearstream’s longstanding support of international RMB bonds, Clearstream also recently facilitated the issue of the first two RMB-denominated Goethe bonds for KFW and China Construction Bank via its CSD in Germany.
This offshore Renminbi bond was named a ‘Schengen’ bond due to Schengen's special connotations with the concept of free travel between Schengen member countries. The pronunciation of "Schengen" in Chinese represents the meaning of “root here and develop here".