Standard Charter beefs up in wholesale
By Zhang Fengming (Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-13 15:41 Standard Chartered Bank plans to double
client revenue in the five years ending 2010 in its wholesale banking business
in China and become one of the country's top three foreign banks, officials said
yesterday in Shanghai.
The bank's wholesale client revenue - or revenue it generated from services
to corporate clients such as lending and trade finance - gained 80 percent in
China's mainland in the first half while profit doubled.
The figure for client revenue for the whole China market, including Hong Kong
and Taiwan, jumped 42 percent in the same period.
"China is always a key market for banks," said David Godwin, managing
director of Standard Chartered's wholesale operations in China. "Our growth in
the country is strong, and the trend is continuing."
The bank's wholesale banking business posted a 50 percent compound annual
growth rate from 2003 to 2006.
The bank declined to give precise financial figures, however.
China is now Standard Chartered's sixth-biggest market in the wholesale
banking sector, up from 2004's ninth biggest, analysts said.
"We have been here for 150 years, and we want to be here for another 150
years," said Andrew Bester, managing director of wholesale banking for China and
Japan. "We want to continue our expansion, and we are interested in being
locally incorporated if regulators want us to."
Standard Chartered now has 20 outlets on the Chinese mainland, including 10
branches, six sub-branches and four representative offices. The bank plans to
add another two sub-branches by the year's end.
The bank has received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission
to pool clients' yuan deposits to invest in overseas fixed-income products under
the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor program.
It said it is getting ready to launch products soon.
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