1st foreign bank allowed to run RMB business

Sinceit entered China in 1981, Mizuho Bank, which was known as the Industrial Bank of Japan before 2000, has witnessed and participated in the growth and opening up of Shanghai’s financial industry. The Industrial Bank of Japan, as one of the first batch of foreign banks approved in China, established offices in Beijing and Shanghai in 1981 and 1982. In 2000, Mizuho Holdings, Inc. was established originally as Mizuho Holdings, Inc. by the merger of Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank, and the Industrial Bank of Japan.

Toyoki Oka joined the Industrial Bank of Japan in 1986. As he recalled, almost each milestone in the history of Mizuho Bank is closely related to Shanghai. What has impressed him the most was that in 1997 the Industrial Bank of Japan became one of the 1st foreign banks in China allowed to offer an RMB business.

At that time, the business scope of foreign-invested banks in China was limited to foreign currency business. Toyoki compares the RMB and foreign currency business to the two wheels of a bicycle, indicating that for foreign banks that aspire to succeed and develop rapidly in China, running an RMB business is a must. Otherwise, their development will easily become unbalanced like a unicycle.

In the 1990s, thanks to China’s emphasis on reform and opening up, more foreign banks were allowed to access China. Upon the announcement of China’s pilot program of allowing an RMB business in foreign banks, those banks were hunkering down to get the first RMB business qualification.