Global Times - Chinese banks flock to Shanghai

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Chinese banks flock to Shanghai

Source: Global Times
[10:07 June 03 2010]
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Citizens pass by a branch of Bank of Ningbo on Nanjing Road West Wednesday. It is one of seven Chinese banks to have moved operations to Shanghai in recent years. Photo: Cai Xianmin

By Zhou Mi

The number of commercial Chinese banks with operational centers in Shanghai increased by 86 percent between 2007 and 2009, according to a report released by the Shanghai office of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Chinese-funded commercial banks opened 7 operational centers in Shanghai during the two-year period, adding to the six operational centers of Chinese commercial banks in the city at the end of 2007, according to the report released on Monday.

"The increase shows Shanghai's emergence as an international financial center is attractive to commercial banks in China," an official from the commission surnamed Jin told the Global Times Wednesday. "The banks place some of their headquarter functions in Shanghai since the financial market here is maturing."

Of those commercial banks cited in the report, the majority had moved capital trading and industry finance departments to the city. These included Bank of Ningbo, which opened a financial marketing department in Shanghai in 2008 to oversee capital investments. Bank of Nanjing began moving some of its functions to the city during the period.

The trend has continued this year. Wenzhou Bank, which opened its Shanghai branch focusing on providing financial services to small and medium enterprises on May 17, is the latest.

More foreign-funded banks have also been opening operational centers in Shanghai. Standard Chartered Bank announced on May 24 that it has moved its Northeast Asia small and medium enterprise banking department headquarters to Shanghai from Hong Kong, in order to take advantage of the city's financial network. Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia announced earlier this year that it plans to move its data center, which deals with millions of business transactions each day, to Shanghai.