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  <title>Shanghai Daily: Banking</title> 
  <link>
  	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/list.asp?id=42
  </link> 
  <description>Shanghai Daily Banking</description> 
  <language>en</language> 


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	<title>Top credit card nation by 2020</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448932
	</link>
	<pubDate>11 Sep 2010 0:00:00 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author>Maggie Zhang</author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	RISING urbanization in China is expected to help the country overtake the United States as the world's biggest credit card market by circulation by 2020, an industry research said yesterday. 
 
China is expected...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[RISING urbanization in China is expected to help the country overtake the United States as the world's biggest credit card market by circulation by 2020, an industry research said yesterday. 
 
China is expected to have 800 million to 900 million credit cards in circulation by 2020 to rank as the world's top credit card market, MasterCard Worldwide said in Shanghai. 
 
The world's fastest growing major economy is expected to have 1.1 billion credit cards by 2025, up from estimates of 230 million cards this year. 
 
"China is showing a big growth potential in urbanization for its card industry," said Chen Bin, client business leader of MasterCard Advisors in China. 
 
The growing middle class in China is fueling the growth in the use of credit cards which are seen as a more convenient and safe payment vehicle. The government is also promoting credit card use as it switches from direct investment to domestic consumption to drive its economy.
 
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	<title>Bank of China offer approved</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448858
	</link>
	<pubDate>10 Sep 2010 0:00:00 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author>Zhang Fengming</author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	THE Bank of China has won regulatory approval for a rights offer in Shanghai and Hong Kong to replenish capital.
 
The China Banking Regulatory Commission has granted the go-ahead in principle, the fourth-biggest...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[THE Bank of China has won regulatory approval for a rights offer in Shanghai and Hong Kong to replenish capital.
 
The China Banking Regulatory Commission has granted the go-ahead in principle, the fourth-biggest bank in China in terms of assets said in a stock exchange filing yesterday.
 
The Beijing-based bank gained approval from its shareholders in August to raise up to 60 billion yuan (US$8.8 billion) in a rights offer, just after it finished its convertible bonds sale of 40 billion yuan earlier this year.
 
The bank said it will issue up to 1.1 rights shares for every 10 existing shares.
 
Bank of China President Li Lihui said earlier that the bank hopes to complete its H-share rights offer by the end of the year. 
 
Chinese banks are dashing to raise capital after a record credit boom in 2009. Banks in China extended a record 9.59 trillion yuan of new loans in 2009 - nearly double the 5 trillion yuan target.  China's five biggest banks are all in the pursuit of capital this year.
 
In July, the Agricultural Bank of China raised US$22.1 billion as it executed an over-allotment option to surpass the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as the world's biggest initial public offering.
 
The market is jittery about the large supply of shares and the lack of capital and the Shanghai Composite Index is the worst performing among the world's top 10 markets this year.
 
But banks need additional capital to extend their lifeline.
 
The China Banking Regulatory Commission has already warned it will curtail banks' expansion and limit their operations if they fail to meet capital adequacy requirements. 
 
The Bank of China's capital adequacy ratio stood at 11.73 percent by the end of June, above the minimum 11.5 percent required by the China Banking Regulatory Commission. 
 
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	<title>Hiring to beef up corporate banking</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448775
	</link>
	<pubDate>9 Sep 2010 0:52:21 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author>Zhang Fengming</author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	JP Morgan Chase plans to hire 1,000 people worldwide this year as it invests US$100 million to build up its global corporate banking business while shedding reliance on its home market in the United States.
 
The...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[JP Morgan Chase plans to hire 1,000 people worldwide this year as it invests US$100 million to build up its global corporate banking business while shedding reliance on its home market in the United States.
 
The hiring spree will include people for its global corporate bank which it seeks to grow in China, India, Brazil, Britain, Germany and Switzerland. Staff will also be hired for products, sales and support services, Gregory L. Guyett, chief executive officer of J.P. Morgan's global corporate bank, said yesterday in Shanghai.
 
"We want to grow our international business and the biggest opportunity for growth is in corporate banking," he told Shanghai Daily.
 
The US bank slowed its global corporate banking expansion during the financial crisis in 2009 as the bank focused more on its balance sheet and the acquisition of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. The expansion was re-ignited late last year.
 
"We decided that we had to start again but to move much more quickly and put more resources behind it," Guyett said. "We'll continue to invest and to invest quickly."
 
The bank targets the world's top 3,000 clients, including corporations, financial institutions and government. The bank is targeting a market share of more than 10 percent in international wholesale banking.
 
The bank has placed China as one of its top priorities due to its rapid economic growth and because "China is already on top or near top of the list" in the expansion plans of its clients.
 
The bank was locally incorporated in Beijing in 2007 with a registered capital of 4 billion yuan (US$590 million). 
 
It also set up a futures brokerage joint venture in 2007, and is now seeking regulatory approval to open a securities joint venture in China.
 
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<item>
	<title>J.P. Morgan revs up expansion for 10% plus market share</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448701
	</link>
	<pubDate>8 Sep 2010 18:01:52 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author>Zhang Fengming</author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	JP Morgan Chase Bank plans to hire 1,000 people globally this year to speed up its global corporate bank as the US bank is shedding its reliance on home market.

The hiring spree includes bankers for global corporate...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[JP Morgan Chase Bank plans to hire 1,000 people globally this year to speed up its global corporate bank as the US bank is shedding its reliance on home market.

The hiring spree includes bankers for global corporate banking, which the bank mainly intensifies in China, India, Brazil, Britain and the German-speaking countries of Germany and Switzerland. It also include the headcount from products, sales and supporting staff from other wholesale banking, said Gregory L. Guyett, chief executive officer of J.P. Morgan's global corporate bank, today in Shanghai.

"We want to grow our international business and the biggest opportunity for growth is in corporate banking," he told Shanghai Daily in a tete-a-tete interview.

The global corporate banking expansion plan was sheltered during the crisis as the bank focused more on balance sheet and the take-over of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual.

The global expansion ambition was re-ignited late last year.

"As we got to 2009, we decided that we had to start again but to move much more quickly and put more resources behind it," he said.

The bank is investing US$100 million in the business this year to build up its team and is seeking a more than 10 percent market share in international wholesale banking.

Though there're double-dip concerns, the bank will not slow down its expansion in the global corporate bank line. "We'll continue to invest and continue to invest quickly," said Guyett, who was on a five-day trip in China to deepen the bank's roots in the world's fastest growing major economy.

The bank targets the world's top 3,000 clients, two thirds of them already its existing clients. Its target clients include companies, financial institutions and governments.

The US bank, which already built a name as an investment bank in China, is expanding corporate banking as part of the job to trim reliance on its home market that contributes three quarters of group revenue.

In China's corporate sector, the bank's targets include multinational companies and Chinese companies going overseas to ride on its global network of over 60 offices.

China's rapid economic growth and the fact that "China is already on top or near top of the list" among its clients' expansion roadmap is driving the US bank to prioritize China as one of its five expansion areas.

He shrugged off worries on China's assets bubble as Chinese government has demonstrated ability to manage a balanced growth.

Ben Shenglin, a veteran banker, joined the bank in April as managing director of JP Morgan China and China head of the global corporate bank to expand the bank's capability in China.]]></content:encoded>
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	<title>Loans for M&amp;As climb on call to lend</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448643
	</link>
	<pubDate>8 Sep 2010 0:09:58 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author>Zhang Fengming</author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	LOANS for mergers and acquisitions in Shanghai rose to 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) at the end of June because banks were encouraged to lend to help facilitate companies to integrate in order to boost economic...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[LOANS for mergers and acquisitions in Shanghai rose to 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) at the end of June because banks were encouraged to lend to help facilitate companies to integrate in order to boost economic upgrading.
 
Thirty-three loans were extended for M&A deals in the city by the end of June, the Shanghai Bureau of the China Banking Regulatory Commission said yesterday.
 
"The loans were granted to support emerging industries like the new-energy sector," the local banking regulator said. 
 
CECEP (Tianjin) Investment Group, which focuses on new energy like solar, is one of the companies to benefit from such loans.
 
China has permitted banks to offer loans for M&As in 2009 for the first time since 1996 as a channel to spur corporate activities.
 
Such loans were previously banned because the regulator was concerned that banks would be saddled with bad debts from a spree of ill-advised lending to enterprises with poor balance sheets.
 
HSBC became the first overseas bank in Shanghai to test the water with the new loans as it lent 280 million yuan in June, the local banking regulator said.
 
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	<title>Barclays 'unacceptable face' to take over as CEO in 2011</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448640
	</link>
	<pubDate>8 Sep 2010 0:08:40 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author></author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	ROBERT E. Diamond Jr, who built British bank Barclays PLC into a global powerhouse in investment banking and has been criticized for his lavish pay, will become chief executive next year, the company announced yesterday.
...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[ROBERT E. Diamond Jr, who built British bank Barclays PLC into a global powerhouse in investment banking and has been criticized for his lavish pay, will become chief executive next year, the company announced yesterday.
 
Diamond, branded "the unacceptable face of banking" by a former government minister, will succeed John Varley, who guided Barclays through the credit crisis without resorting to a government bailout.
 
Diamond will take over as CEO on March 31 after 14 years with the company.
 
The 59-year-old American's rise comes as governments review regulation, including a possibly momentous move in Britain to force lenders to divorce investment banking from retail operations. At home, Barclays may also feel pressure from the government's austerity drive which will shrink public spending.
 
Following its acquisition of Lehman Brothers' United States operations, Barclays has become heavily dependent on the investment banking activity which is now Diamond's domain.
 
Barclays Capital now commands 60 percent of the company's capital needs, a share that may increase due to regulatory changes, yet is likely to be less profitable than the Barclays retail side, Evolution Securities said in a research note.
 
Diamond's salary will be 1.35 million pounds (US$2.08 million) with bonuses of up to 250 percent of that figure. The bank said it also intended to award a long-term, performance-based share incentive of 500 percent of base salary in 2011.
 
Diamond was paid 250,000 pounds last year and waived his bonus, but he reportedly also gained 26.8 million pounds from his shares in Barclays Global Investors when it was sold to Blackrock fund manages.
 
Peter Mandelson, the business secretary in Britain's previous government, said in an interview with The Times in April that Diamond hadn't earned the money, "he has done so by deal-making and shuffling paper around."
 
"That to me is the unacceptable face of banking," Mandelson said.
 
Barclays' Chairman Marcus Agius said in a conference call that Diamond's compensation was "well benchmarked" against the pay of other chief executives of major banks, but the pay package may be politically sensitive.
 
"In times of austerity, industry compensation continues to sit uncomfortably with politicians and the electorate, while questions over broader European banking strength have resurfaced," said Keith Bowman, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers.
 
 
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<item>
	<title>New Appointment</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448639
	</link>
	<pubDate>8 Sep 2010 0:08:17 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author></author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	HSBC Holdings Chairman Stephen K. Green will leave the bank to become Britain's minister of state for trade and investment, the company said yesterday.
 
Green will retire from the bank later this year and take...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[HSBC Holdings Chairman Stephen K. Green will leave the bank to become Britain's minister of state for trade and investment, the company said yesterday.
 
Green will retire from the bank later this year and take up his new post in 2011.
 
Prime Minister David Cameron said Green will make an "invaluable contribution" to driving economic growth in Britain as the government seeks new trade links, promote British business overseas and maximize inward investment.
 
He will replace Mervyn Davies, former chairman of Standard Chartered.
 
 
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<item>
	<title>Ireland may keep open part of Anglo Irish Bank</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448505
	</link>
	<pubDate>7 Sep 2010 0:00:00 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author>Andras Gergely</author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	KEEPING a part of Anglo Irish Bank open for business remains an option, the Ireland's finance ministry said yesterday, denying media reports that it has already decided to ask Brussels to wind it down gradually.
...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[KEEPING a part of Anglo Irish Bank open for business remains an option, the Ireland's finance ministry said yesterday, denying media reports that it has already decided to ask Brussels to wind it down gradually.
 
Earlier yesterday, the Irish Independent newspaper reported Finance Minister Brian Lenihan would ask the European Commission to allow a closure of the nationalized lender over a 10-year period.
 
Science and Technology Minister Conor Lenihan said on Saturday the bank would be "decommissioned," the latest signal from the government that it is about to bow to growing political pressure to shut down the lender. 
 
"There are two options, a wind-down done over a period of time or a good bank/bad bank scenario put forward by Anglo," a spokesman for the ministry said, adding that Brussels was expected to give its verdict at the end of the month.
 
"It will only be at that stage that we'll know which of the options has been chosen," the spokesman said.
 
The escalating cost of rescuing Anglo Irish is a major threat to Ireland's creditworthiness, with analysts seeing it as the next potential eurozone trouble spot after Greece despite much-vaunted efforts to cut other public spending. 
 
At around 352 basis points, the premium investors demand to hold 10-year Irish debt rather than benchmark German Bunds, it remains only about 20 bps below last week's record highs, showing investors are still nervous over the Irish economy.
 
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	<title>Macquarie sees profit goal not met</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448503
	</link>
	<pubDate>7 Sep 2010 0:00:00 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author>Narayanan Somasundaram</author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	AUSTRALIA'S top investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd warned investors it would miss profit forecasts after weak markets took a toll on its trading and advisory business, sending its shares to a 15-month low.
 
Macquarie,...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[AUSTRALIA'S top investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd warned investors it would miss profit forecasts after weak markets took a toll on its trading and advisory business, sending its shares to a 15-month low.
 
Macquarie, dubbed the "millionaires' factory" for its senior bankers' hefty pay, said its first-half net profit would fall by a quarter and its fiscal year 2011 profit would be in line with last year's.
 
The forecasts follow two earlier warnings on market conditions and calls for the bank to cut jobs or pay.
 
Global rivals like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, investment bank units of JPMorgan and Credit Suisse have all shared grim outlooks.
 
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	<title>Afghans continue pulling money from troubled bank</title> 
	<link>
	
	http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=448407
	</link>
	<pubDate>5 Sep 2010 13:18:23 +0800</pubDate> 
	<category>Banking</category> 
	<author></author>
	<description><![CDATA[
	NERVOUS Afghans pulled more deposits out of the nation's largest bank despite assurances from government leaders that their money was safe.
 
Crowds gathered yesterday at Kabul Bank branches around the capital to...]]></description>
	<content:encoded><![CDATA[NERVOUS Afghans pulled more deposits out of the nation's largest bank despite assurances from government leaders that their money was safe.
 
Crowds gathered yesterday at Kabul Bank branches around the capital to withdraw dollar and Afghan currency savings, with customers saying they had lost faith in the bank's solvency following a change in leadership and reports that tens of millions of dollars had been lent to political elites for risky real estate investments.
 
"Kabul Bank has lost the trust of the people. Even the chairman resigned so all the people are concerned," said Mohammad Nawaz, head of an Afghan aid group who had tried for three hours to withdraw the US$15,000 in his account.
 
The bank run that began earlier in the week undermines efforts by the central government to build an efficient political and financial system to drag Afghanistan out of its dire poverty.
 
Problems at the bank could also have wide-ranging political repercussions since it handles the pay for Afghan public servants, soldiers and police in the unstable nation beset by a Taliban insurgency, widespread drug trafficking and the plundering of aid money.
 
While Afghanistan's central bank is working with the Kabul Bank and drawing on its reserves to help deal with the situation, US officials insisted that the United States is not bailing out Kabul Bank.
 
Deputy US Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said that while American officials were providing technical assistance to the Afghan government, "This is an Afghan issue. They are taking immediate steps to ensure the stability of Kabul Bank and to protect the financial assets of the Afghan people. ... No American taxpayer funds will be used to support Kabul Bank."
 
Meanwhile, the deputy commander of the international coalition in Afghanistan said contingency plans were being drawn up to respond in the event of unrest.
 
"We're prepared to deal with the unexpected," Lt. Gen. Sir Nick Parker said.
 
Kabul Bank's woes further underscore entrenched problems with cronyism and corruption, with millions of dollars in deposits allegedly loaned to relatives and friends of the ruling elite to buy property in financially troubled Dubai.
 
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Kabul Bank's losses could exceed US$300 million - more than the bank's assets. In addition, The Washington Post said Afghanistan's central bank had ordered Kabul Bank's newly resigned chairman to hand over US$160 million in Dubai real estate holdings.
 
On Thursday, President Hamid Karzai reassured anxious bank customers, saying every penny of their deposits would be guaranteed by the government.
 
"The Kabul Bank is safe," Karzai said in comments echoed by the country's central bank governor and independent banking association.]]></content:encoded>
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