BEIJING, May 8 (Xinhua) -- With the launch of China's new round of opening-up, foreign banks are ushering in valuable opportunities to extend business in China, according to several experts with Financial News.
China's banking and insurance regulator plans to unveil a batch of new opening-up measures in the near future, said Guo Shuqing, head of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), during the interview.
Among these policies, canceling the approval procedures for foreign banks to conduct RMB business and allowing them to start RMB business when they open business in China is the one which can best reflect the pre-establishment national treatment policy, remarked Zeng Gang, director of banking research at the Institute of Finance and Banking of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
This measure means foreign banks can enjoy the same RMB business access policies with domestic banks, pointed out Wu Qi, a senior research fellow with Pangoal Institution, a China-based public policy think tank.
According to Everbright Securities, foreign banks take up a low share in China's banking system in terms of total assets, and the total assets of foreign banks in China were 2.93 trillion yuan as of the end of 2016, only accounting for around 1.26 percent of that of banking financial institutions in China.
Besides, data from Wind, a Chinese financial data provider, showed that as of the end of 2017, the total asset profit margin of foreign banks in China was 0.48 percent, only half of the average profitability of China's banking industry.
Restrictions on RMB business might be an important factor that leads to such a situation, according to insiders.
Thanks to the frequent introduction of favorable policies, the business environment for foreign banks in China has been increasingly optimized in recent years.
Data showed that currently, 41 foreign banks have settled in China and 115 branches of foreign banks and 154 representative offices of foreign banks are operating in China. Besides, the proportion of foreign banks' assets in China has risen to 1.64 percent.
In addition to those supportive policies, the Belt and Road Initiative has also brought many opportunities for foreign bank to develop in China. (Edited by Gu Shanshan)
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