To further reduce the transaction costs for Bond Connect overseas investors, effectively enhance the sense of gain for market participants, promote Bond Connect investments, and continuously improve market service levels, Bond Connect Company Limited (“BCCL” or “the Company”) will further reduce its service fees. Effective from January 1, 2025, the service fees will be adjusted as follows: for transactions with a remaining tenor of less than or equal to one year, the service fee will be reduced from 0.0015% of the face value to 0.0006%; for transactions with a remaining tenor of more than one year, the service fee will be reduced from 0.0030% of the face value to 0.0012%.

With a ratio by 60%, the service fee reduction is the largest one by BCCL over the past seven years of its operation and marks the Company’s fourth fee reduction. This arrangement demonstrates BCCL’s active response to investor concerns, its commitment to the positive development of the Bond Connect scheme, and its dedication to providing practical services to the market in the long term.

Since its launch on July 3, 2017, Bond Connect has become a benchmark for connectivity, attracting a large number of overseas investors with its advantages of convenient market entry, easy trading, and high capital efficiency. This has effectively helped China’s bonds to be included in the three major global bond indices i.e. Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index, JPMorgan Government Bond Index-Emerging Markets, and FTSE World Government Bond Index.

Over the past seven years, Bond Connect has achieved remarkable results. As of the end of October 2024, there were over 800 Bond Connect investors from nearly 40 jurisdictions, including various institutions such as asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, banks, securities companies, pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds, charitable funds and others.

From January to October 2024, the total trading volume of Bond Connect approached RMB 9.0 trillion. Its average daily trading volume reached RMB 43.1 billion, setting a historical high, which is twenty times in comparison with the volume at the initial launch in 2017, or an average annual growth rate of 62% over the past seven years. The growth effectively served the various needs from overseas investors to invest or trade in RMB assets. It has also become an important channel for the continuous inflow of foreign capital into China's financial market, playing a positive role in enhancing China's balance of international payments and promoting the internationalization of China's financial market.

Next, BCCL will continue to uphold the high standards for the opening-up of China financial market, better utilize its connectivity function between the mainland and Hong Kong financial markets, and under the guidance of its shareholders, effectively implement the onboarding services, investor education, market promotion and other services. The Company will strive to build a one-stop service portal for overseas investors investing in the China interbank market, contributing to the high-quality two-way opening of China’s financial market.