Shanghai Daily news

Nanjing City Commercial Bank plans to expand outside its home market of Nanjing City and open branches in other cities after selling a stake to French lender BNP Paribas early this month.
The bank, which is seeking to be the first of the 130-plus city commercial lenders in China to go public, plans to extend its service from Nanjing to other cities in Jiangsu Province, an official said.
"We do have plans to go outside Nanjing and we will seek permission from the government for cross-city expansion," said Hu Bin, a manager at the Nanjing bank.
The bank now operates 60 branches and sub-branches in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu, and employs around 1,480 people in the city.
BNP Paribas bought a 19.2 percent stake in the bank last week, paying US$87 million to its shareholders, including International Finance Corp, the private investment arm of the World Bank, which reduced its shares to 5 percent from 15 percent.
China's city commercial banks are restricted to providing services within the cities they are located in, but banking regulators plan to encourage their expansion outside.
Nanjing, if it files for permission to go outside, could be the first city bank to expand out of their home markets.
The bank had a net gain of 215 billion yuan (US$26.5 billion) last year and its non-performing loan ratio stood at 4.4 percent at the end of last year.