Source: CCTV.com

01-16-2007 14:40

Last December, China issued a series of banking policy aimed at providing a level playing field for foreign and local lenders. That included the ability for foreign lenders to provide retail RMB business to Chinese citizens, provided they become locally incorporated.

Everybody is lining up to tap that market. Hong Kong's Bank of East Asia has announced this week its strategy to attract RMB retail clients.

China's retail banking sector has been growing at an average of 30% annually over the past five years. And overseas lenders are hoping to expand aggressively in the lucrative Chinese yuan market. A series of foreign players have already submitted papers to be incorporated locally including the Bank of East Asia, Standard Chartered Bank, Citigroup and HSBC, and are waiting for approval.

And the Bank of East Asia is taking it a step further. The bank has announced this week, that it plans to launch a series of promotions to attract Chinese mainland customers when it starts operating its yuan retail business. The bank hopes to launch the service during the second quarter this year, after receiving official approval.

The BEA adds it will not reject low-end customers, and that anyone will be able open an account at the bank with just a one yuan deposit. The banks will not charge any service fees for the RMB deposit and withdraw services.

Zhang Weien, president of BEA Shanghai branch, said "BEA will grow with the market development. After all the market competition is still severe, and there are possibilities that we will charge for the yuan services in the future."

At present, Standard Chartered and Bank of East Asia are the only two overseas banks that have said that they will accept both high-profile and low-end clients. Citigroup and Hang Seng Bank say they will release their yuan business policy details after the establishment of their local branches later this year.

 

Editor:Du Xiaodan