Today, RMB announced the extension of its longstanding partnership with China Construction Bank (CCB) for an additional five years. This collaboration, established in 2009, facilitates cooperative efforts between the two entities, leveraging their individual strengths.
CCB has been instrumental in supporting various Chinese enterprises in their investments and trade activities in Africa, while RMB contributes its extensive on-the-ground expertise to enhance these initiatives.
RMB CEO Emrie Brown said: “We have, since we first started partnering with CCB, together facilitated over R20bn of trade and provided over R6n of financing to Southern African companies. CCB was also an anchor funder of our R3.37bn BEE refinancing deal in 2010.
“Our partnership has been successful by every measure and we look forward to continuing to work with CCB.”
Erwin Pon, Head of RMB Asia said: “We are excited to extend our partnership with CCB and help develop the increasingly important trade and investment growth between Africa and China. In 2022, there was over $280bn of bilateral trade between China and Africa and we expect it to rise substantially in the next few years.
“The world is changing quickly and we are pleased to be at the forefront of facilitating that change for business.
“Increasingly our clients are settling import and export deals directly in Renminbi without the need of first converting rands to US dollars, which reduces the costs of trade. We are therefore strengthening the application of Renminbi trade through more efficient settlements and clearing systems. Of course, the US dollar remains the most widely used currency for international trade.”
Pon said for the next five years the partnership would also focus on jointly supporting customers within the China-Africa corridor as well as expanding their cooperation in project financing, syndicated loans and trade.
Meiwei Luo, General Manager of CCB South Africa said: “The trust established during our collaboration will be further leveraged by harnessing the strengths of CCB and RMB to meet the needs of clients.
“Today we are building on that trust and we look forward to achieving successful goals together.”
The partnership is investigating various cooperation initiatives that will allow the two banks to provide better service to their clients. The parties have also committed to collaborate in activities and events across the China-Africa corridor to create brand awareness for both parties in Africa and internationally.
China Construction Bank Corporation is the second largest bank in China and one of the largest listed banks in the world.
RMB is the corporate and investment banking arm of FirstRand Limited.
