Beijing: The Industrial Bank Co., Ltd., a prominent joint-stock commercial bank in China, has announced the successful issuance of its first batch of sci-tech innovation bonds on the inter-bank market. The funds raised from this issuance are intended to support lending towards scientific and technological innovations and related business activities.

According to Oman News Agency, the bond issuance totaled 10 billion yuan ($1.39 billion) with a maturity of three years and an interest rate of 1.66%. The issuance was met with significant interest, achieving an oversubscription rate of 2.9 times.

The announcement of the bank’s bond issuance follows recent moves by China’s regulatory bodies to enhance the sci-tech innovation bond market. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the China Securities Regulatory Commission revealed new measures last week aimed at diversifying sci-tech bond offerings and bolstering supporting mechanisms.

Preliminary data from the PBOC indicates that nearly 100 market entities are in the process of preparing to issue more than 300 billion yuan’s worth of sci-tech innovation bonds, with expectations for increased participation in the future.