New Delhi, Oct 14 — China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) lent hundreds of millions of dollars to high-risk borrowers in Africa for projects despite internal warnings about corruption and weak compliance, a new report has said.
The report from the United States based ADF (Africa Defense Forum) said the bank courted high‑risk borrowers in Africa and elsewhere, prioritising geopolitical objectives tied to Beijing over standard risk controls.
The report cited an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) which reviewed almost 5 million internal documents from 2005 to 2024 held at the bank’s London offices to identify the way the ICBC courted high-risk borrowers.
The documents contained instructions from ICBC’s Community Party committee, which pushes government policies, showing that the bank worked with clients avoided by other lenders over corruption.
“Credit application forms and other confidential records sometimes included the phrase ‘China rationale’ to explain why ICBC London would want to pursue a deal, revealing the geopolitical nature of some loans,” the report said.
Senior ICBC officials ignored warnings after ICBC's Beijing headquarters flagged in 2024 that the bank’s overseas operations reflected poor client screening, weak oversight of employees, and incomplete reporting on anti-money-laundering efforts.
“When convenient for Beijing, the records show, the bankers would willingly serve state companies — even those that were not transparent about their financial flows and controlled by governments that, in the words of one ICBC banker, were ‘clearly kleptocracies,’” the report noted.
The publication earlier in July said that China’s growing investments in African ports undermine the sovereignty of African nations and are being repurposed for military and intelligence uses.
While such investments have boosted trade with China, analysts said many deals lack transparency and burden governments with heavy debt obligations and long‑term operational dependencies.