BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of China (BOC), the country's second largest lender, announced here Monday that its three billion yuan worth of Renminbi-denominated bonds in Hong Kong had oversubscribed by 178 percent.

    During the subscription period from Sept. 13 to Sept. 21, the issue attracted more than 40,000 individual investors, far beyond expectation; the bank guaranteed that every individual subscriber would get 10,000 yuan worth of bonds.

    Meanwhile, the BOC would divide the 2 billion yuan worth of two-year bonds and one billion yuan worth of three-year bonds evenly between institutional and individual investors.

    The annual yield of the two-year bonds stands at 3.15 percent while annual yield of the three-year bonds was 3.35 percent.

    Hong Kong banks started to handle RMB business in 2004, and by the end of June this year, the RMB deposits in Hong Kong had reached 27.6 billion yuan. (One U.S. dollar equals 7.51 yuan)