Beijing Zhongcai Green Financing Consultant
With the rise of green finance in China has come the rise of onshore green accreditation agencies. The leader among the domestic firms is Beijing Zhongcai Green Financing Consultant, which was spun off from the Green Bonds and Research Institute of China Central Political and Law University. Zhongcai’s director of green bond business is Hanke Zhang.
The firm, which has more than 30 staff, has accredited more than 50 bonds worth Rmb130 billion ($20 billion), including offshore dollar and euro offerings, among them a $2.1 billion bond issue by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
The firm works closely with green bond issuing leader Industrial Bank and was a lead accreditation agent for the bank’s Rmb50 billion bond issue in 2016, which remains one of the largest in the market. Only one other firm, Pudong Development Bank, has issued a Rmb50 billion bond so far; Ernst & Young was the verification agency on that issue.
Zhongcai was the first institution to provide green third-party assessment services in China. In addition, it has maintained close contact and cooperation with various international agencies, including Icma, the Climate Bond Initiative, the London Stock Exchange, and several market issuers, investors and underwriters. In 2017, the organization was the main contributor from the Chinese side for the paper ‘Common language for green finance’ jointly issued by the China Green Finance Committee and European Investment Bank and that advocated the global harmonization of green bond standards.
Onshore, Zhongcai is a member of China’s National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors (NAFMII), a self-regulated industry association that oversees China’s institutional investors.