Foreign banks flock to city
10/5/2006 17:13
Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news
Shanghai's
increasingly attractive environment for financial markets is expected to attract
a growing number of foreign banks to the city over the coming three years,
according to the Shanghai Banking Regulatory Commission yesterday.
The number
of foreign banks in the city has been growing fast, with 87 branches by the end
of March this year (including one currency broker and two auto finance
companies), up by 25 over the past three years, with 18 being added last year.
Four branches and five sub-branches of foreign banks are currently being
established.
By the end of March this year, foreign banks in the city
reported combined assets of over US$50 billion, accounting for 55 percent of
such assets in China and 13 percent of Shanghai's banking sector. Over the past
three years, foreign banks' total assets have grown by 50 percent annually, with
loan balances growing by an average of 58.5 percent per year and savings
balances rising an average 60.4 percent per year.
The number of employees
working for the local operations of foreign banks has also seen rapid growth,
reaching a total of 5,696 by the end of last year, up 1,646 from a year
previously.
|
