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IBS signs Stretegic Cooperation Agreement with Kasikornbank in Thailand, to Explores New Footings in ASEAN Region

Date:Fri Dec,2016

(15 December 2016, Hong Kong) – International Business Settlement Holdings Limited (“IBS” or the “Group”; HKEX stock code: 00147.HK) announced that the Group has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Kasikornbank Public Company Limited (“K Bank”) today. The two parties will fully cooperate in business areas including fund settlement, electronic payment platform, small and-medium enterprise (“SME”) cross-border trading and financing. K Bank will join the Next Generation Settlement Network (“NGSN”) developed by IBS to act as a settlement bank for IBS in Thailand. 
 
The agreement signing ceremony was held in Bangkok, Thailand, attended by guests including Mr. Banthoon Lamsam, Chairman and CEO of K Bank, an official representative of Bank of Thailand and Mr. Luo Feng, Executive Director and Chairman of the Group. 
 
Riding on its NGSN, IBS will consolidate K Bank’s local settlement expertise and turn it into global settlement capability.  This will greatly enhance the security and convenience of its cross-border fund transfers for financial institutions, corporations and individual customers, materializing real time settlement service, thereby will broaden the customer base of K Bank.  Furthermore, IBS and K Bank will jointly develop value-added services for payment businesses, cross-border trading of SMEs and financing, providing convenient and efficient financial services and a diverse and innovative payment method. 
 
This will bring forth a cross-border settlement, trading and financing platform that serves the two countries and also member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. 
 
K Bank is one of the fourth major commercial banks in Thailand. It has 1,119 branches across the country and operates branch organisations in countries and regions such as China, Hong Kong, the US, Japan and Vietnam. 
 
Thailand is a core hub of the ASEAN region and also a bridge critical to the development of business opportunities in cities on the coast of the Indian Ocean in China’s “One Belt, One Road” policy.  The strategic partnership with K Bank is not only of significance to the Group’s plan of expanding its settlement business globally in the future, but also will drive the rapid development of multilateral trade between Thailand, China and Southeast Asia, giving great convenience to trading and finance activities between Thailand and the rest of the world. 
 
Mr. Luo Feng, Executive Director and Chairman of the Group, said, “The cooperation between the Group and K Bank marks our official entry into the Southeast Asia financial market, as well as evidences our efforts to implement and realise the blueprint we have to ‘develop a global innovative next generation settlement eco-system’.  For K Bank, we will not only be able to ease settlement of funds between China and Thailand, but also between Thailand and Europe, and Thailand and other regions via our regional settlement technology with block chain deployed worldwide. Guided by China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative and the Group’s ‘four key strategies’, we will seize the opportunities brought by the strategic cooperation to consolidate the friendship between China and Thailand, and also promote multilateral trade among Thailand, China and Southeast Asia, to jointly maintain and build a global payment and settlement network which is fast, secure and low cost starting from the core hub cities to the whole region and the entire world.  
 
Looking ahead, we will speed up exploring cooperation opportunities with banks and financial institutions so as to boost our business coverage and growth, thereby give investors greater confidence in us, as well as higher returns.”
 
Mr. Banthoon Lamsam, Chairman and CEO of K Bank pointed outChina is Thailand's largest trading partner, as well as Thailand's main FDI source. The total trade volume in 2016 between China and Thailand would be achieved 2.3 trillion Thai Baht. The K bank cooperation with IBS on development of China-Thailand cross-border payment system would be able to improve the efficiency of the digital bank and international payment services, and also reduce the exchange risk and cost of foreign exchange and remittance, thus to further promote the long-term stability of the bilateral trade investment and tourism development.



Mr. Luo Feng, Executive Director and Chairman of the Group (left), and Mr. Banthoon Lamsam, Chairman and CEO of K Bank (right) are having a pleasant conversation before signing the strategic cooperation agreement.



Mr. Luo Feng, Executive Director and Chairman of the Group (left), and Mr. Banthoon Lamsam, Chairman and CEO of K Bank (right), sign the strategic cooperation agreement.



About The KASIKORNBANK Public Company Limited
The KASIKORNBANK Public Company Limited was established on June 8, 1945, formerly known as the Thai Farmers Bank is a leading banking group in Thailand. As of December 2015 K Bank was one of the fourth major commercial banks in Thailand as measured by total assets, loans, and deposits. Since its inception, the Bank has grown healthily. As of September 30, 2016, the Bank, with registered capital of Baht 30,486 Million, had total assets of Baht 2,742,207 Million, total deposits of Baht 1,774,377 Million, and total loans of Baht 1,671,545 Million. The Bank operates 1,119
branches across the country, comprising 313 Bangkok branches and 806 upcountry branches.  The Bank has sixteen overseas offices which greatly facilitate international trade and financial service transactions between Thailand and its trade partners worldwide. 

About International Business Settlement Holdings Limited 

International Business Settlement Holdings Limited (HKEX stock code:00147.HK) is actively developing its new business of arranging the next generation settlement network.  The Company intends to based on its distributed network, block chain and other technologies, deploy the next generation worldwide settlement and clearing network.  It will provide a fast, highly efficient and low cost financial expressway between different countries by connecting their central banks’ real-time settlement and clearing systems.  Based on its unique block chain regional settlement circle technology, the Group will construct a multi-currency, internationalized and distributed global settlement platform.  This platform is aimed at realizing point-to-point, “7X24” (i.e. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), multi-currency and real-time fund settlement and clearing for cross border trading businesses and individuals around the world.  

About Next Generation Settlement Network (NGSN)

The Next Generation Settlement Network is a global distributed multi-currency settlement network that aims to provide an alternative settlement network whichis capable of point-to-point, around the clock, multi-currency, real time settlement service to international financial institutions, international corporations and small to medium size enterprises. At present, traditional settlement network will engage different inter-banks to arrange for the remittance. The whole remittance process can take up to 3-15 days and involve relatively higher costs. Besides, there are uncertainties as to the settlementas well. However, the Next Generation Settlement Network will use the latest technology (such as regional settlement technology with block chain and bigdata) so that the settlement can be done on a real-time basis and around the clock (i.e., “7X24”), with relatively lower costs and lower foreign exchange risk exposure. As the Next Generation Settlement Network is to be connected with various central banks and commercial banks, the network will be complying with various rules and regulations as required by different central banks.