The exchange rate of major foreign currencies such as Euro and Japanese yen has seen significant fluctuating since last year, highlighting the investment value of foreign exchange transactions. Recently, ICBC has rolled out the buy-to-sell function of account-based foreign exchange to further diversify the means of foreign exchange investment and trading, which better meets customers’ trading requirements. Specifically, when predicting that a foreign currency is likely to depreciate against RMB, customers can receive a return on investment by selling the currency before buying back. In February 2013, ICBC became the exclusive provider of account-based foreign exchange business, enabling customers to conduct dealings in RMB and the following six currencies: EUR, GBP, CHF, AUR, CAD and JPY. 

Account-based foreign exchange is an account-based  trading product for retail customers, where only the shares are counted without withdrawing real currencies. Customers may trade in multiple foreign exchanges with RMB, but foreign exchange shares in the account cannot be used for any foreign currency withdrawal or transfer/remittance. Individuals who have requirement for foreign trade, traveling abroad, overseas study and overseas online shopping can buy account-based foreign exchange before selling it to avoid the risk of its appreciation against RMB, and also can sell account-based foreign exchange before buying it to prevent the risk of its depreciation against RMB. Meanwhile, specialized retail investors who have knowledge of the foreign exchange market can have spread gains through short or long positions based on their understanding of the exchange trend.

According to an ICBC official, account-based foreign exchanges, independently developed by the Bank, have more strengths than similar products in the market. First is long trading hours from 7:00am on Monday to 4:00am on Saturday, allowing customers to trade on a real-time basis or through pending order based on ICBC’s non-stop quotations. Second is convenient and fast trading channels including ICBC personal internet banking, mobile banking and telephone banking. Third is no restriction by the cap of personal foreign exchange settlement and sales in a year. Therefore, customers can invest in the foreign exchange market based on personal needs without using annual limit.