In order to further facilitate the investment of overseas institutions in RMB bonds and better implement the relevant work arrangements of the People's Bank of China for the expansion of the opening up of the financial market as well as the "Thirty Articles of Shanghai Financial Development", the National Interbank Funding Center (hereinafter referred to as CFETS) has been actively co-operating with settlement agent banks, market makers and overseas third-party platforms, and started the trial operation of direct trading service under CIBM Direct (CIBM Direct Trading Service) from today.

Through CIBM Direct Trading Service, offshore institutional investors under the direct investment mode can directly send requests for quotation to onshore market makers and complete cash bond trading. Additionally, they can also leverage various RFQ protocols such as trade allocation and list trading, which further improves the efficiency of investing and trading in RMB bonds.Drawing on the experience of Bond Connect, this service enable soffshore institutional investors to request for quotes and transact with onshore market makers using conventional trading platforms via the link between the system of CFETS and overseas trading platforms. This service adopts the "Dealer Pay" model in alignment with current global practice.Tradeweb and Bloomberg have now partnered with CFETS to offer CIBM Direct Trading Service to foreign investors.

On the first day of the trial operation, a number of overseas institutions completed cash bond trading through this service and experienced the efficiency and convenience of direct trading, providing good user feedback.Among them, AllianceBernstein LP, UBS Asset Management, PIMCO,Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HSBC Hong Kong, ICBC (Macau), CITIC Bank International, ICBC (Dubai) and other overseas investors have completed the first batch of 17 transactions,with the amount of  560 million yuan in total,with ICBC, ABC, CCB, Bank of Communications, CITIC Bank, HSBC China, Standard Chartered China, CITIC Securities, Guotai Junan Securities,Orient Securitiesand other onshore market makers through this service.As settlement agents, ICBC, HSBC China, Standard Chartered China and CITIC Banktake the lead in supporting overseas clients to carry out direct trading and providing settlement services.

In the next step, as an important infrastructure of the interbank bond market, CFETS will continue to co-operate with all market players under the guidance of the People's Bank of China, continuously improve the convenience for overseas institutional investors to invest in RMB bonds, and promote the high-quality opening up of China's bond market.