Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd. has officially launched services for the Thai Baht (THB) and the United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED), enabling both corporate and individual clients to conduct cross-border payments, deposits, currency exchange, and financing through online banking, direct corporate connections, and over-the-counter channels.
The newly added currency services support direct clearing between the Renminbi and the Thai Baht and UAE Dirham, eliminating the need for US dollar intermediation. This helps clients shorten fund settlement times and reduce exchange and intermediary bank fees.
In recent years, a growing number of Chinese companies have been engaging in trade and investment in "Belt and Road" regions, particularly Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Simultaneously, personal travel, study, and work exchanges have become more frequent, driving up demand for local currency settlements.
Previously, some Renminbi exchanges required conversion through the US dollar, creating a "Renminbi-US Dollar-Local Currency" process. This not only delayed settlement times but also exposed companies to additional handling fees and exchange rate risks from multiple conversions.
With the launch of the Thai Baht and UAE Dirham services, companies can now directly exchange for local currencies for cross-border settlements. The bank's "Industrial e-Manager (International Business)" platform also provides real-time, exclusive Thai Baht and UAE Dirham foreign exchange rates. The platform supports 24/7 transaction orders, including market-price execution, pending orders, and price-locking, allowing companies to flexibly manage their foreign exchange arrangements based on their operational needs.
For fresh food importers, timely fund settlement is critical for procurement and delivery schedules. A Nanjing-based agricultural trading company, which regularly imports durians and other fresh fruit from Thailand, previously used US dollar routing for remittances, which typically required T+1 or T+2 settlement. Any cargo damage also led to complicated refund procedures. On the first day of the Thai Baht service launch, the company completed its foreign exchange purchase and remittance online, achieving same-day settlement and saving thousands of yuan in exchange costs.
For Chinese enterprises involved in infrastructure and construction projects in the UAE, improving the efficiency and convenience of cross-border settlements is a key challenge. By customizing a UAE Dirham settlement plan, the bank helped a large state-owned construction company in Tianjin achieve T+0 settlement of project payments and conversion into Renminbi. The entire process was handled online, effectively solving the company's issues with exchange rate losses from US dollar routing and the time-consuming procedures for final payments and guarantee deposits.
In recent years, Industrial Bank Co.,Ltd. has made internationalization a key strategic direction, actively developing its international business and enhancing its multi-currency cross-border financial service system. Currently, its "Industrial e-Manager (International Business)" platform covers 14 currencies from the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania, providing a comprehensive suite of services including multi-currency account management, cross-border remittances, exchange rate hedging, cross-border supply chain financing, and cross-border investment and financing.
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