BEIJING, May 20 (Xinhua) — The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)’s branch in Seoul, capital of the Republic of Korea (ROK), has been facilitating production resumption and trade financing for enterprises of the two countries since the COVID-19 outbreak.
According to the person in charge of the branch, it handled 732 trade financing operations with a total value of 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, including a loan worth 22.9 million dollars granted to a Korean enterprise operating in China.
The Seoul branch helped a Korean financial institution receive larger liquidity support from the headquarters, made the way more smooth for a Korean insurance company to invest in China, and arranged financing plan for a Korean manufacturer in China to resume production.
The Seoul branch also provided a package of financial services such as trade financing, letter of guarantee, cross-border direct loan, settlement, deal making, as well as a green channel and service fee reduction for donation and epidemic prevention goods procurement.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the branch has donated 460,000 masks to designated hospitals in Hubei Province and 120 million wons (about 97,000 U.S. dollars) to the Red Cross Society of the ROK.