Standard Chartered announces further financing commitment to China’s Belt & Road initiative

To mark the 9th UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, Standard Chartered Bank on Monday announced a further commitment to support the Belt & Road (B&R) Initiative by facilitating financing to the value of at least USD 20 billion by 2020.

Standard Chartered is one of very few truly global banks that can facilitate trade, capital and investment flows across Belt & Road markets, and already makes around 85% of its income from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. José Viñals, Chairman of Standard Chartered, said: “With our unique network, Standard Chartered has a natural fit with the Belt & Road initiative. More than two thirds of our global footprint overlap with the Belt & Road destination countries and we have a long history of supporting clients across these trade and investment corridors. Our new commitment will support our Chinese clients along the Belt & Road routes and help our destination market clients seize the opportunities resulting from this important initiative.”

The UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, now in its ninth year, focuses on a range of partnership targets such as trade, infrastructure and UK-China financial services cooperation.

Standard Chartered’s commitment to facilitate Belt & Road financing will be as an intermediary and service provider across a full range of lending, financial markets, transaction banking, capital markets and project finance activities. The Bank has already been involved in more than 50 deals this year worth more than USD10billion across a range of products and services. Around half of these were in Africa, a quarter in South Asia and the remainder from across the rest of the Belt & Road footprint.

The Bank’s latest in-depth report examines the state of trade and investment cooperation between China and B&R countries, as well as the emergence of multi-tier financing mechanisms. “The Belt & Road initiative has made significant headway in the past four years, and is now well into the implementation stage,” says Shuang Ding, Chief Economist, Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered. “We expect development financing and commercial banks to play an increasing role in meeting the financing needs of B&R projects.”