China opened five industrial cities to overseas lenders one year ahead of a WTO timetable, as it eases restrictions on foreign expansion in the world's fastest-growing major economy.
Foreign banks will be able to apply to start doing yuan business with local companies in Harbin, Changchun, Lanzhou, Yinchuan and Nanning a year ahead of a Dec. 1 next year deadline for the reforms, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a statement released yesterday at its annual press conference in Beijing.
Shantou and Ningbo opened up to foreign lenders yesterday, as originally planned under the WTO pledges made in 2001.
US and European banks, including Citigroup Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc, are attracted by China's US$1.7 trillion household savings market, where 97 percent of assets are held by domestic lenders.
Foreign banks are targeting growth in credit cards and asset management to enhance brand awareness and increase revenue.
Yesterday's announcement brings to 25 the number of cities where overseas banks can do corporate business in the Chinese currency. The government is committed to removing geographic restrictions next December and allowing foreign banks to take deposits with local residents for the first time as part of agreement when it joined the WTO in 2001.
Overseas banks are seeking ways to expand in China, spending more than US$16 billion buying stakes in local banks to tap distribution channels for their financial products. China's four largest state-owned banks have at least 77,474 branches and 19 trillion yuan (US$2.3 trillion) of assets.
As of Sept. 30, 138 foreign banks have received approval to do yuan business, 15 can conduct online banking services and 41 foreign banks can trade derivative products.
Assets of foreign lenders reached a total of 550.7 billion yuan as of Sept. 30, making up about 3 percent of assets of China's financial institutions, according to the banking regulator.
Their bad loans stood at 160 million yuan, or 0.92 percent of total advances, at the end of September, compared with 1 trillion yuan, or 10.11 percent, of the nation's four biggest state banks.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
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