BEIJING, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- With further opening-up of China's banking industry to the outside world, more foreign banks are investing in China and playing an increasingly important role in serving China's financial market, supporting the development of the real economy, and promoting the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.
--- Rising number of foreign banks in China
Data shows that as of the end of June, foreign banks have established 41 foreign-funded banks, 115 foreign bank branches, 156 representative offices, and 1,005 business operation organs in China, with total assets in China increasing 7.56 percent year on year.
As a pioneer in China's reform and opening up, Shanghai has attracted lots of foreign banks to do business there.
Up to now, there are 21 foreign-funded banks in Shanghai, accounting for more than half of the total number of foreign-funded banks in the country, with total assets accounting for more than two thirds of the total of foreign banks in China. In the first half of 2018, the foreign banks in Shanghai maintained a good development trend, according to Zhang Liang, deputy secretary general of the China Banking Association at a banking seminar in Shanghai on Monday.
To be specific, by the end of June this year, banks from 29 countries and regions had established organs in Shanghai. The number of operation organs of foreign banks in Shanghai has been 230, with 70 representative offices. The total assets of the foreign banks in Shanghai reached 1.53 trillion yuan, posting a year-on-year increase of 12.6 percent, and accounting for 10.2 percent of the total assets of Shanghai's banking industry.
--- More services and products to serve Belt & Road
In addition to the increase in the size and number of organs, the foreign banks in China have also constantly enriched their services and products.
With the opening-up of China's financial industry, Citibank has obtained a number of important business qualifications, such as inter-bank bond market settlement agent, bond underwriting, and "Bond Connect" quotation agency. It is also one of the first batch of banks in China approved to build the full-featured cross-border capital pool structure for the multinational companies, according to Pei Yigen, executive vice president of Citibank (China).
With the deepening of China's opening-up and the growing demand for globalization of the Chinese-funded enterprises, foreign banks in China have shifted their focus from helping the foreign-invested enterprises enter the Chinese mainland to supporting the domestic enterprises to go global.
In many projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese enterprises and their overseas partners are increasingly demanding financial services such as strategic consulting, financing, hedging strategies and liquidity management. HSBC Group can provide comprehensive financial support for the customers to expand the cross-border cooperation and help the Chinese enterprises develop their global business, said Li Feng, vice president of HSBC China.
In 2017, the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) upgraded its Shanghai representative office to the Shanghai branch.
The reason for the upgrade is that there are more and more Chinese companies getting contracted projects in Kuwait and the Middle East and Gulf region. Their contracted engineering business is constantly rising in volume and qualification, according to Yong Sin Leou, president of the Shanghai Branch of NBK. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
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