SINGAPORE-incorporated banks are seeing brisk business from a new deal that allows eligible firms and individuals in the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) to conduct cross-border yuan transactions with Singapore.

HSBC Singapore said in a statement on Friday that it was among the first batch of banks to lend 150 million yuan to two corporate clients.

It did so within 30 minutes of the registration system opening on Thursday.

The two clients - a bus manufacturing enterprise and a distributor of allied industrial electronics - are registered with SIP.

HSBC Singapore said it was able to secure the deals with the help of HSBC's Suzhou Branch.

"This is the latest in a series of RMB initiatives which HSBC has been pleased to be involved with in our efforts to grow our range of RMB products and services," said HSBC Singapore chief executive Guy Harvey-Samuel.

"It affirms our commitment to continually innovate and respond to our customers' needs for yuan-denominated solutions and it also helps to boost Singapore's development as a regional RMB clearing centre," he added.

Standard Chartered Bank also announced that it has signed contracts with two clients worth a total of 39.5 million yuan.

One of the clients is in the production of travel coaches and the other is in the electronics components manufacturing industry.

The China unit of local lender DBS Bank has helped a Southeast Asian customer based in Suzhou Industrial Park obtain a yuan-denominated loan from the bank's Singapore headquarters.

DBS did not state the quantum of the loans.

The banks are making the loans following last Friday's announcement by the People's Bank of China Nanjing branch that allows Singapore lenders to issue loans to SIP corporates, while SIP firms can issue bonds in Singapore, among other things.

The Straits Times understands that the three banks are among a handful of lenders that have managed to issue loans under the scheme.