Interview: LSE committed to supporting off-shore RMB market in London: CEO

London Stock Exchange (LSE) is to build a vibrant international market for Chinese equity and debt funding and very pleased with progress on the development of offshore RMB center in London, said Nikhil Rathi, CEO of London Stock Exchange plc, in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Rathi said London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) will be hosting LSEG Beijing Annual Conference in Beijing on Tuesday. And the LSEG team will be in China for a week to meet Chinese companies, investors, banks and regulators with the aim of further developing the already close partnership between China and London Stock Exchange Group.

"We will be meeting Chinese companies throughout this week, each considering raising capital in London to support their own international development plans. I'm very confident we will continue to see a growing stream of Chinese companies listing in London," he introduced.

He said LSE believes there is exceptional growth potential for the relationship between London and China. LSE has a strong track record of supporting Chinese equity and debt issuance on its markets.

"We are committed to working together with local companies, financial institutions and regulators to build a vibrant international market in London for Chinese equity and debt funding as well as supporting China's ambitious green finance agenda," he added.

He pointed out that their aim is to work in close partnership with China as it seeks to internationalize its currency. "We are fully committed to supporting the efforts of the Chinese and the UK Governments in developing an off-shore RMB market in London through innovation and partnership."

A key factor that will help develop this market is making available more RMB products and securities in the international market in London, Rathi added.

LSE have signed agreements with major Chinese banks to collaborate on product development, as well as facilitating trading between the two countries.

On a possible link-up between the London and Shanghai stock exchanges, he told Xinhua, "as announced by our two governments, the Shanghai and London Stock Exchanges are conducting a feasibility study on links between our markets and that study is now underway."

He believed with the UN Climate Summit in Paris in December and the Chinese G20 Presidency starting in January, this is a critical moment to put green finance on the agenda.

He said China's rapidly developing green finance policy is already being put into action through the markets in London. In October, Agricultural Bank of China listed its RMB and dollar denominated Green bonds with a total value of 1 billion U.S. dollars, an issuance that was four times oversubscribed and the RMB tranche was eight times oversubscribed.

"We have a very positive long term outlook on China. It is, by many measures, already the world's largest economy and continuing to grow at a fast pace. There is no doubt that China's global economic importance will increase and we are committed to playing our role in supporting that growth," Rathi said. Endit