The state-controlled Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) has invested millions of dollars in projects across Africa. A new report says the bank has made loans despite ignoring corruption among the countries receiving them while also aligning its investments with China’s political goals for the continent.
The report, “China Capital,” by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, reviewed nearly 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 in Africa and elsewhere to secure resources and alliances for China.
Among the documents were instructions from ICBC’s Community Party committee, which pushes government policies. The investigation revealed that ICBC worked with clients that other lenders avoided because of corruption or sanctioned owners.
“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,” investigator Scilla Alecci wrote in the report.
The ICBC does much of its work in Africa through the continent’s largest bank by assets, South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, which has affiliates in 21 African countries. The ICBC began its relations with Standard Bank Group in 2007 and renewed its investment in 2023. It currently holds a 19.7% stake in the South African bank.
Standard Bank told The Africa Report that, despite the ICBC’s stake, Standard Bank remains an independent institution that operates under its own guidelines for making loans.
“No individual shareholder is responsible for determining lending decisions,” the bank told The Africa Report.
An internal report written at the ICBC’s Beijing headquarters in 2024 warned that the bank’s overseas operations showed poor client screening, weak oversight of employees, and incomplete reporting on anti-money-laundering efforts. Some senior ICBC officials failed to act after receiving reports about the problems, according to the report.
“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,’” Alecci wrote.
Angola’s state-owned Sonangol Group oil company was one of ICBC clients that received large loans despite a history of corruption. The company received $2.5 billion from ICBC when it was controlled by people with close ties to then-Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos.
“Internal memos about a 2010 loan illustrate China’s leverage as Angola’s largest foreign creditor, requiring Sonangol to both sell its oil to China and use the loan proceeds to hire Chinese construction companies,” the ICIJ reported.
More than a decade later, the ICBC dismissed corruption allegations against the oil company’s former head, Isabel dos Santos, the former president’s daughter. She was charged in 2017 with costing $219 million in losses for the state during her Sonangol tenure.
An internal ICBC memo said, despite the suspected corruption, the bank should continue working with Sonangol Group because of its role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
ICBC supported Sierra Leone’s plans to upgrade Queen Elizabeth II Quay at the Port of Freetown in 2017. Despite reports of public corruption by the government, Chinese banks offered nearly $660 million in loans for the project.
“ICBC London made an exception to the bank’s compliance policies for the Sierra Leone borrower,” Alecci wrote. A year after signing the loan, reports of corruption by the developers caused bank officials to withhold the loan without actually cancelling it.
The ICIJ report quoted one ICBC banker: “If [head office] cancel it, it will hurt the relationship with the government of Sierra Leone.”