SHANGHAI, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) successfully placed 3 billion yuan (448 million U.S. dollars) of RMB-denominated bonds in the China Interbank Bond Market on Monday, the bank announced Tuesday.

The bond was placed in two tranches with maturities of 3 years (2 billion yuan) and 5 years (1 billion yuan) and was priced at the lower end of the announced pricing range with coupon rates of 3 percent and 3.32 percent respectively.

"The NDB successfully raised 3 billion yuan at very attractive price levels, which marks another formidable milestone for the bank. Pricing of the bond is a good reflection of the NDB's high credit quality," said Leslie Maasdorp, NDB VP & CFO.

"In line with the NDB's General Strategy, the bank intends to become a regular issuer in local currency markets of its member countries. The bank is currently awaiting regulatory approvals to issue local currency debt in a number of markets of its member countries."

The bond was more than 3 times oversubscribed with more than 20 orders from domestic state-owned, joint-venture and rural banks, fund companies, securities companies, foreign banks and sovereign funds.

"The geographical distribution reflects a strong demand from global investors for China local currency bonds issued by a highly rated international issuer," Maasdorp said.

In July 2016, the NDB successfully issued its first Green Financial Bond with the issue size of 3 billion yuan and tenure of 5 years in the China Interbank Bond Market.

The NDB was founded by the BRICS member countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- during the group's sixth summit in Fortaleza, Brazil in July 2014 and formally opened in Shanghai in July 2015.