China's trade finance business has made significant strides in recent years，resulting in a major contribution to global trade. However，trade finance practitioners are facing a new and complex mix of challenges amid a slowing economy，tougher regulatory requirements，trade protectionism and a growing pushback against globalization.

From 1953 to 1993，Bank of China was designated as the state's specialized foreign exchange bank，exclusively handling the nation's settlement and financing of foreign trade. Since the reform of foreign exchange management system in 1994，all commercial banks with a foreign exchange business license have been permitted to conduct foreign trade finance business.

However，according to statistics collected by the International Chamber of Commerce China，even though many newly established local municipal and rural banks have begun trade finance operations，the business has largely been concentrated in state-owned commercial banks，policy banks and medium or large shareholding commercial banks.

Trade banks account settlement transactions on about 70% of the country's global trade in goods，and these banks have been used as samples for data analysis in this study.