The Bank of China (BOC), the country's second largest lender, announced Monday that its three billion yuan (US$398.9 million) worth of renminbi-denominated bonds in Hong Kong had been oversubscribed by 178 percent.

During the subscription period from September 13 to September 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 two 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 renminbi business in 2004, and by the end of June this year, the renminbi deposits in Hong Kong had reached 27.6 billion yuan.