Citi signs MoUs with Chinese banks for Belt and Road

Citi announced on Friday it has signed memoranda of understandings with Bank of China Ltd and China Merchants Bank Co Ltd to strengthen cooperation between Citi and the two banks in supporting clients' investments and projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Citi will work with each bank to explore potential avenues of cooperation in various fields, including co-financing, financial products, trade, agency and trust, and capital markets.

This will include projects involving infrastructure, railroads, power and energy ventures, telecom, oil and gas and agriculture as well as sustainable development projects, which include education, environment and small-to-medium enterprises.

Christine Lam, president and chief executive officer of Citi China, said: "We have a long track record of supporting our Chinese banking clients around the world and recently we have achieved several landmark transactions supporting the Belt and Road Initiative. We look forward to continuing our century-long tradition of serving our clients by enhancing partnership and helping them realize their global ambitions."

In supporting the Belt and Road Initiative, Citi acted as the only external global coordinator on Bank of China's Belt and Road bond issuance three times across all tranches, having raised $10 billion in total from international markets.

A recent EY report said China's investments to Belt and Road economies increased in 2017 despite an overall drop in Chinese outbound direct investment of 32 percent from the previous year, in the context of the complex global investment environment and tightened domestic regulation on cross-border investment.

Last year, Chinese companies made non-financial outbound direct investments of $14.4 billion in 59 economies related to the Belt and Road Initiative, accounting for 12 percent of total non-financial ODI, according to the report.