小树 在 上 海 种 树

By GEORGE CHEN in the City of London, London

* To increase stake in China JV to 80-100 percent in 12-18 months
* To increase China staff to 250 by end-2008, 500 by 2011
* To set up China back-up and service centre this year

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Willis Group Holdings Ltd, the world's third-largest insurance broker, expects to maintain its annual revenue growth in the China market at at least 20 percent for the next five years and will increase its stake sharply in its local venture, a senior executive said on Friday.

Willis plans to increase its stake in Shanghai-based Willis Insurance Brokers Co, in which it already owns 51 percent, to 80-100 percent and the deal could be completed in the next 12-18 months, said Sarah Turvill, chairwoman of Willis International.

Willis also plans to increase its China staff to 250 by the end of this year from about 200 currently and its total China headcount to 500 by 2011, Turvill told Reuters in an interview at Willis Group's head offices.

"We expect double-digit growth of our revenue in Asia, led by China and India for at least the next five years," she said.

Willis's China revenue rose 23 percent in 2006 and 24 percent in 2007. Turvill said she expected that Willis would maintain the same pace of growth in China for the next five years.

Last year, Willis was appointed by the Shanghai city government as the insurance brokerage partner for the World Expo to be held in the city in 2010, which Turvill said would bring the firm a new source of revenue in the next few years.

Willis's French partner, Gras Savoye, in which Willis is the largest single shareholder with a 37 percent stake, also won a contract for the Beijing Olympics 2008.

More than a dozen global insurance brokers including HSBC Holdings Plc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc have set up shop in China in the past few years, heating up the competition in China's infant but fast-expanding insurance brokerage sector.

MODERN PLATFORM

Willis currently operates 20 offices across China, making it the top foreign insurance broker, with the biggest branch network in the vast country.

Willis also plans to set up a back-up and client-service centre in Shanghai this year to offer documenting, billing and accounting to support its fast-expanding China business, Turvill said.

"Normally, people set up service centres in lower-cost areas just to save money. We are not trying to do that," she said.

"What we are trying to do is to give ourselves a modern platform for growth going forward."

The proposed back-up and client-service centre in Shanghai is expected to be launched this year and will initially serve Willis's staff and clients in mainland China, she said.

Willis may expand and relocate the back-up centre to a second-tier city in northern or western China between 2009 and 2010 to serve its Greater China business, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, she said.

Currently, Willis has its regional service centre in Mumbai, India, where most of its staff are English-speaking employees who do not understand Chinese.

To improve its communications with clients in the Greater China region, Willis had decided to create a new centre in Shanghai. The Mumbai centre would continue to serve the rest of Asia, Turvill said.

In India, Willis has a 26 percent stake in a local venture and expects to increase this to at least 49 percent. The Indian regulator currently only allows foreign investors to own no more than 26 percent of an insurance brokerage joint venture, however, Turvill said.

The Indian partner of Willis has agreed to allow it to increase its stake to 49 percent as soon as the regulator changes current investment restrictions, she added. (Editing by Quentin Bryar)

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By GEORGE CHEN in London

* Aims to launch China insurance JV in July or August
* May take 3-5 years for the JV to make a profit
* In talks with Bank of Communications on pension business

LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - HSBC aims to launch its first life insurance joint venture in China in July or August and plans to offer pension services with a local partnership in the world's fastest growing major economy, a senior HSBC executive said on Thursday.

Europe's biggest bank is in the final stage of seeking approval from Chinese insurance regulators to launch its Beijing-based life insurance venture in which HSBC hopes to take a 50 percent stake, said Clive Bannister, head of the bank's insurance business.

However, it may take 3 to 5 years for the insurance venture to make a profit, he said.

"We hope to complete the joint venture in China and it's natural to expect the earnings (of HSBC's insurance business) will continue to be very strong in Asia Pacific after that," said Bannister in an interview at HSBC's offices in London.

If approved, the joint venture would have a nationwide business licence, allowing it to sell insurance products to Chinese clients through the branch networks of HSBC and its local partner, Bank of Communications , China's fifth biggest lender by assets.

Bannister said cooperation between branches of HSBC and Bank of Communications, would be also subject to Chinese regulatory approval.

HSBC would target high-end customers in China, focusing on HSBC's existing high-end banking clients at the initial stage of its insurance venture, said Bannister.

"We are positioning the company very differently and what we will be doing is a value proposition, not a volume proposition," he said. "Our clients (in China) will be owners of businesses and business entrepreneurs who are seeking significant life cover and protection."

HSBC makes about $2 billion in annual profit from its existing insurance business, or 10 percent of the group total.

In Britain, HSBC plans to expand its insurance business through organic growth, especially through its own bancassurance channel, telephone and online sales, Bannister said. He dismissed speculation that HSBC may grow its British insurance business through takeovers.

NEXT MOVE: PENSIONS

HSBC, which is a leading player of pension services in Hong Kong, where the bank was founded, is also in discussions with Bank of Communications -- of which HSBC owns nearly 20 percent -- on pension business cooperation.

However, it is not clear whether the two banks would eventually set up a joint venture or undertake some other form of cooperation to tap China's infant but fast growing pension market. That is partly because Beijing is still finalising the rules to allow banks to offer pension management services, Bannister said.

"We think we understand how to look after pensions, pension assets and administrations, but how we can do this in China depends on the final legislation and we have had discussions with Bank of Communications on this," he said.

China's nascent voluntary corporate pension scheme, known as enterprise annuities, is similar to the 401(k) plans that dominate corporate retirement planning in the United States.

Analysts have estimated that within a few years, enterprise annuities could surpass China's $25 billion National Social Security Fund as a source of new money to manage -- and therefore as a source of fees.

HSBC also has a 25 percent stake in an insurance brokerage in China. The Beijing-based venture focuses on Chinese companies that are expanding abroad, where HSBC can offer its international expertise on insurance advisory services, said Bannister.

Last year, HSBC became aggressive in the insurance business in Asia through several newly established joint ventures in India, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan.

Bannister said HSBC had done fairly well in Asia but now had to focus on making the new ventures make money. "The growth prospect in Asia is still very high." (Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
STAFF WRITER OF TreeBar.net

SHANGHAI, March 15 (Reuters) - CITIC Securities said on Saturday it might not proceed with a deal to invest about $1 billion in Bear Stearns because of the U.S. investment bank's financial crisis.

China's largest listed brokerage said it would "conduct an overall evaluation" of the deal after Bear, saying its liquidity position had worsened, obtained on Friday an emergency funding arrangement with the U.S. Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase.

Any cancellation of the CITIC deal would be another blow to Bear, the smallest of the major New York investment banks and the most reliant on slumping U.S. mortgage markets. It has been counting on the investment to boost its capital.

"Our company has noticed the recent financing arrangement between Bear Stearns, JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions, and we have also considered factors including the sharp fall in Bear Stearns' share price," CITIC Securities said.

"We cannot guarantee reaching a final agreement in the future," it said in a statement emailed to Reuters in response to media enquiries.

Last October, Bear and CITIC Securities announced plans to invest about $1 billion in each other and form a joint banking venture in Asia. CITIC Securities was to obtain a stake of about 6 percent in Bear, with the U.S. bank getting about 2 percent of the Chinese firm.

But since then, Bear's share price has plunged 74 percent. CITIC Securities' shares have tumbled 45 percent as China's stock market has slumped, hurting the Chinese firm's earnings outlook.

"We acknowledge that the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. capital markets is continuing, so we will closely monitor the impact of the crisis on the investment deal," CITIC Securities said.

"At present, the two parties are still negotiating major terms of the deal and we have not completed due diligence on Bear Stearns. We haven't signed any formal agreement and we haven't paid any money."

CITIC Securities did not say when its evaluation of the Bear deal might be completed.

Global markets have been speculating that cash-rich Chinese financial institutions might take advantage of the U.S. subprime crisis to buy big stakes in foreign companies at cheap prices. But the uncertainty over the Bear deal suggests Chinese firms may be wary.

In early March, CITIC Group chairman Kong Dan said the Chinese brokerage was renegotiating the Bear deal in light of Bear's sliding share price, and might take a bigger stake than originally envisaged.

A revised deal with an investment of $1 billion could have given CITIC Securities up to 9.9 percent, making it the largest single shareholder in Bear.

But on Wednesday, Kong suggested that CITIC Securities might now take the originally planned stake of 6 percent while paying less than $1 billion.

On Saturday, Bank of China said it was interested in acquisitions in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East, but was unlikely to look for bargains among Western financial institutions hit by the subprime crisis.

"We certainly will not buy into institutions like Bear Stearns," said Xiao Gang, chairman of China's fourth largest bank by assets. (Writing by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Charles Dick)

TEXT and PHOTO by GEORGE CHEN in Beijing
STAFF WRITER OF Treebar.net

这周都在北京忙“两会”，我一直觉得“两会”是一个非常有中国特色的词汇，如果有不理解中文的外国读者，建议使用百度（www.baidu.com）搜索一下。

因为忙，所以自己的网站也不会有太多的时间更新，但是有时间我就会传送一些北京“两会”期间的照片上来，大家也可以在以下这个地址浏览，“两会”期间我会滚动更新：http://www.flickr.com/photos/treebar/sets/72157604032586622/。

一直觉得2008年能够去北京跑“两会”是一件很有意义的事情，也许是因为今年正好赶上奥运会，感觉政府在舆论导向和会议公开等多个方面都较去年有更大进步，人民大会堂的服务人员也一改以往死板作风，终于学会了微笑服务。今天我还碰到一个据说是局级的“两会”新闻官给我亲自端茶送水，着实让我终于有了一回“无冕之王”的感觉。

当然，大家来跑“两会”还是以新闻报道为主，有时间给自己的经历留下一下回忆，所以我决定用镜头来记录下北京“两会”期间一些有意思的画面。为什么说“跑两会”，我想经历过“两会”的记者，尤其是通讯社的记者肯定能够对这个“跑”字有切身体会。很多时候新闻的确不是写出来的，而是你自己跑出来的。

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
STAFF WRITER OF TreeBar.net

SHANGHAI, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Shanghai Century Publishing Co Group, the city's top book publisher, is planning to list part of its assets to seek as much as 3 billion yuan ($417.4 million) through a domestic initial public offering of shares this year, people familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

Shanghai Century, which controls more than a dozen publishing houses and a big distribution network for books and media products in eastern China, has hired local underwriters and auditors for its IPO preparations, said the sources, who declined to be identified before an official announcement.

It is not known what kind of assets Shanghai Century will list as Beijing usually does not allow domestic media firms to list content-related assets, such as editorial units, preferring instead business-related assets like print, advertising and distribution.

Shanghai Century's IPO proposal has won support from the city government, which controls the company, and China's publishing industry watchdog, the sources told Reuters.

But the company had not yet formally applied to China's securities regulator in Beijing, the sources said, adding the firm expected to list as early as in the first half of 2008.

A shareholder of state-owned Shanghai Century confirmed the company's IPO plan for this year but declined to comment further, while a representative for Shanghai Century could not immediately be reached for comment.

Beijing has encouraged publishing companies to raise capital from domestic IPOs since last year in a move aimed at boosting domestic players amid increasing foreign competition in China, where media-related industries are still tightly regulated by the ruling Communist Party.

Shanghai Century's smaller rival, Liaoning Publishing and Media Co , listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange late last year after Shanghai-based Xinhua Media listed on the city's bourse earlier in 2007.

"If you said 2007 was a starting year for media IPOs, then I say you will see much more similar IPOs, including Shanghai Century, in 2008," one of the sources said.

"Since the government has shown its support with no doubt, why not do the IPO as soon as you can," he added.

The Shanghai city government controls more than 70 percent of Shanghai Century while its minority shareholders include several local asset managers, the city's news portal Eastday.com, and a local publisher in Zhejiang province near Shanghai.

Shanghai Century may seek foreign investment after its proposed IPO, while it had already been cooperating with many well-known foreign publishing houses on a project basis, the sources said.

Shanghai Century aimed to use part of the IPO proceeds to boost its digital media services, such as Internet-based book database and online subscriptions of Chinese magazines and newspapers, as it was keen to explore new profit streams, the sources said. ($1=7.188 Yuan) (Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)

Also available at iht.com: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/13/business/shanghai.php.

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai and KENNIX CHIM in Hong Kong
Reuters / International Herald Tribune

SHANGHAI -- The Chinese securities regulator has asked China Railway Construction to postpone its Shanghai and Hong Kong stock listings, worth as much as $4 billion, because of poor market conditions, three people with direct knowledge of the situation said Monday.

The company had planned to post its initial public offering schedules, including roadshows and fund subscriptions, on the Shanghai stock exchange's Web site about a week ago.

According to the people close to the situation, China Railway Construction did not announce its IPO plans because Beijing suggested that the company delay its listing until after the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts Thursday.

There is also no plan yet for a listing after the Lunar New Year, said the people, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The company, which built the Qinghai-Tibetan railway, originally planned to list in Shanghai and Hong Kong in the middle of February after it finished roadshows before the Lunar New Year, the people said.

''We were told that the IPO was delayed as a result of negotiations with the securities regulators in the final minutes last week,'' one person said.

''There is no new time frame for the IPO, though we hope the IPO can be launched by the end of February or in early March,'' this person said. ''It will mainly depend on the market environment.''

China Railway Construction had won approvals from the regulators late last month, but mainland Chinese companies usually have to seek final documents from the securities watchdog before issuing an initial offering.

Executives at China Railway Construction could not immediately be reached for comment. Citic Securities, the underwriter for the company's Shanghai listing, and officials at the China Securities Regulatory Commission declined to comment.

The Shanghai stock market has become volatile in the past few weeks amid concerns about the U.S. credit crisis and the dilutive effects from planned major share offerings like the one from China Railway Construction. As a result, new listings have started to suffer.

China Coal Energy, one of the largest Chinese coal producers, had a disappointing debut in Shanghai on Friday. It ended at 22.20 yuan, or $3.08, up 32 percent from its initial public offering price, but below analysts' forecasts of a first-day range of 26 yuan to 32 yuan.

Beijing sharply increased the number of large public offerings of domestic companies like PetroChina and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China last year in a move aimed at absorbing the flow of money to cool down an overheated market.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission suspended the approval of new stock mutual funds five months ago because of concerns that they were feeding a frenzy that made Shanghai one of the hottest stock exchanges in the world last year.

However, the commission on Friday approved two new stock-focused mutual funds that plan to raise up to 14 billion yuan, ending the informal five-month freeze, in an apparent bid to halt the slides on the mainland stock markets.

''All the things are clear signs that the regulators are now changing their policy focus to encourage investors' confidence,'' a second person said. The commission may not allow big initial public offerings in the near term, he said.

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
STAFF WRITER OF TreeBar.net

从来没有想到上海会下那么大的雪，至少这场雪是自我出生以来最大的。

我的同事Rujun在她的Facebook上写道：I have a mixed feeling with the snow。我很同意。一来看着大雪纷飞的上海，好像忽然进入了黑白老电影的境界，二来小孩子们对雪总是喜欢多过厌恶，堆雪人、打雪仗，曾几何时的经典游戏一夜之间都复活了。

但对于政府而言，越下越大的雪却给整个城市乃至国家都带来了不小的麻烦，甚至可以说是灾难。晚上看新闻，电视里不断重复着来自广州火车站的镜头：一群又一群的民工高喊口号“我要回家”、妇女带着孩子四处找食物，却发现方便面已经暴涨至20元一盒，如此场景不胜枚举，看了让人心寒。

说到民工，那显然已经成为中国“非典型”一族。说“非典型”是因为按照阶级来区分，民工完全可以归类于工人，但是他们又区别于工厂工人，多数民工来自农村，且服务场所大多为大中城市的建筑工地。但是正如我最近观看的电影《长江七号》中所真实描述的那样，民工的生活水平相对于中国每年高达10％的经济增长而言，堪称绝对的“非典型”。

一年苦到头，好不容易盼来过年，却又很不幸碰到百年难遇的大雪，对广东“非典型”民工族而言，一句“我要回家”的呐喊实在很难让人有任何反驳的权利，更何况对很多民工而言，春节回家看看可能是每年唯一一次探亲机会，拼命于大中城市赚钱，目的也只有一个：为了家人的日子好过些。

上海也有很多民工，相对于其他城市而言，上海的生活水平和政府对民工及其子女的关心程度还是可圈可点的。最新的媒体报道显示，政府对于那些一时难回家乡过年的上海民工，不仅送衣送食，还安排集体游玩。对于广州火车站的那些民工，现在唯一能做的只有忍耐和等待。

回过头来看《长江七号》，虽然是喜剧片，但故事本身却蕴育了一个或喜或悲的哲理：中国人望子成龙、望女成凤的心里在片中被展现得淋漓尽致，关于“我的志愿：做一个穷人”背后的道理，仔细想来也不禁让人一阵心寒。难道我们周围大多数人真的已经穷的只剩下钱？

我想很多人也许和我一样，这个春节最大的愿望莫过于大雪能够下的小一点，如果它还不愿暂时离去的话。

图片说明：大雪影响上海交通，打出租成了一个很难完成的任务；背景里的几幢洋房是以前犹太人在上海避难时住过的地方，旁边的一条小马路恰是昔日非常有名的“华亭路”，以出售假冒且低价的奢侈品而享誉世界。（All rights reserved. Copyright by George Chen.）

For more photos about Shanghai, please visit:
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By GEORGE CHEN and CHARLIE ZHU in Shanghai

SHANGHAI, Feb 1 (Reuters) - China on Friday approved the launch of two stock-focused mutual funds to raise up to 14 billion yuan ($2 billion), ending an informal five-month freeze in an apparent bid to stop the local stock market sliding more.

Sources close to the situation told Reuters that sharp falls in the domestic A market prompted the approval for China Southern Fund Management Co and CCB Principal Asset Management Co to launch closed-end funds.

The benchmark Shanghai composite index <.SSEC> has fallen 29 percent from a record high in mid-October on investor fear of a U.S. recession, increasing stock supply and inflation, which could be compounded by China's fierce winter weather.

"This is a signal to the market that regulators are concerned about the market's recent heavy losses," said a fund manager at one of two fund firms that gained approval on Friday.

Beijing tightly controls the pace of fund launches in a bid to stabilise the stock market which has to absorb listings of a large number of big state owned enterprises.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) suspended the approval of new stock mutual funds five months ago for fear of feeding a frenzy that made Shanghai one of the world's hottest big bourses last year.

But now, poor market sentiment has started to take its toll on new listings.

China Coal Energy Corp , the country's second largest coal producer, staged a disappointing debut in Shanghai on Friday.

It ended at 22.20 yuan, up 32 percent from its initial public offering price, but below analysts' forecasts of a first-day range of between 26 and 32 yuan. (For story, click on [ID:nSHA156051])

Sources familiar with the situation said China Southern won approval to raise up to 8 billion yuan, while CCB Principal, an arm of China Construction Bank , may raise up to 6 billion yuan.

China Southern is to launch the fund mid-February, a company source said, based in the southern city of Shenzhen.

Spokespersons were not available for comment at China Southern and CCB Principal.

China's mutual funds, which have grown to more than 3 trillion yuan, have suffered heavy redemptions in recent weeks, contributing to the slide in stock prices, fund managers said.

They said Beijing gave approval to launch closed-end funds instead of open-ended funds, products which investors can trade in and out frequently, to prop up the volatile stock market. (Editing by Suzy Valentine in London)

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
STAFF WRITER OF TreeBar.net

SHANGHAI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - China's government has capped CITIC Bank's new loans at 95 billion yuan ($13.21 billion) for this year, slightly below last year's levels, as it moves to rein in credit growth at second-tier lenders, bankers briefed on the situation said on Wednesday.

CITIC Bank, partly held by Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria , issued nearly 100 billion yuan in loans in 2007, said the sources, citing the bank's unaudited 2007 results.

"It's not a policy towards only CITIC Bank, but a national policy targeting all mid-sized banks," said one of the sources. "Obviously, the regulator is deeply concerned about rapid credit growth in 2007, so its policy has to be tougher this year."

The sources asked not to be identified as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Beijing moved to cap 2008 new loan quotas for the country's Big Four state lenders late last year.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China , China Construction Bank Corp and the Agricultural Bank of China [ABC.UL] were told to keep 2008 new loans within last year's respective targets of 365 billion yuan, 350 billion yuan and 310 billion yuan.

The new loan quota for Bank of China , which has lost more than other Chinese banks from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, has been trimmed to 260 billion yuan from 280 billion yuan in 2007, according to Reuters reports.

Beijing-based CITIC Bank is one of about a dozen mid-sized Chinese banks with operations across the country.

Beijing has imposed lending curbs on domestic peers such as Shanghai Pudong Development Bank , in which Citigroup has a stake, and Minsheng Banking Corp , which is part-owned by Singapore's Temasek [TEM.UL], the sources said.

This year's new loan quotas by all commercial banks in China will be controlled under roughly 3.5 trillion yuan this year, slightly below last year's 3.6 trillion yuan, they said.

"We will closely supervise banks' operations under the principle of prudence," said a spokesman at the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), declining further comment.

Officials at CITIC Bank declined to comment.

MONTHLY REVIEW

"Harsh loan curbs would slow profit growth of most banks by about 10 percent," said Qiu Zhicheng, banking analyst at Haitong Securities, one of China's top 10 brokerages. "Many investors have already become pessimistic on the outlook of the banking sector this year."

To help monitor banks' loan growth, the CBRC has asked all second-tier banks to this year report their loan increase each month rather than each quarter.

"Monthly review means you have to issue loans equally every month and this may cause trouble to companies that do not have good cashflow," said another of the sources.

Chinese banks tend to issue loans aggressively in the first three quarters before slowing their lending growth, or even suspending loan issuance, in the last quarter to meet annual quotas.

CITIC Bank has said it would release its 2007 results in late March. ($1=7.192 Yuan) (Additional reporting by Eadie Chen in BEIJING and Samuel Shen in SHANGHAI, Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

By GEORGE CHEN in Shanghai
Reuters / International Herald Tribune

SHANGHAI -- Citigroup and Central China Securities will soon apply to Chinese regulators to set up an investment banking joint venture, according to two people who were briefed on the situation.

The new company would be Citigroup's first investment banking venture in China. It already helps Chinese companies list in Hong Kong, but involvement in China's domestic investment banking business would be an important expansion.

The plan could also indicate that the U.S. banking giant remains committed to growth in large and attractive emerging markets like China despite damage suffered in the subprime loan crisis.

Under its deal with Central China Securities, a midsize brokerage based in the central province of Henan, Citigroup would apply for permission to own the maximum allowable 33 percent stake in the venture, the two people said Sunday, declining to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.

A Citigroup spokeswoman, Shannon Bell, would not comment about the deal. Central China Securities could not be reached for comment. An official announcement is expected this week, the two people said.

'' Citigroup gets its China partner for investment banking at last'' after ''years of searching and waiting,'' one person said.

''The deal has strong support from the local Henan government, so the central government would be unlikely to turn it down, as Beijing also wants to boost Henan's financial sector growth.''

Central China Securities has more than 500,000 securities business clients and about 40 offices in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai, where its investment banking business is based, according to the company.

Citigroup has been looking for years for a Chinese brokerage partner to set up an investment banking venture. The deal with Central China Securities comes after failed efforts to make similar arrangements with Chinese firms including Xiangcai Securities and Founder Securities, the people said.

Some foreign banks entered the Chinese investment banking market long ago. Goldman Sachs bought 33 percent of a venture with Gao Hua Securities in 2004, while UBS gained a foothold in 2005 through the purchase of part of Beijing Securities.

A two-year regulatory ban on new foreign-invested ventures then ensued as China restructured its brokerage sector, but Beijing announced earlier this month details of rules under which it will resume approving ventures.

Several foreign banks are therefore scrambling to establish ventures. Credit Suisse said this month it had signed a pact with Founder Securities, and Reuters reported in late December that Morgan Stanley had signed a deal with Fortune Securities.

Citigroup is already active in the Chinese commercial and retail banking sectors, where it has started offering yuan retail banking services and has a minority stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, as well as de facto management control of Guangdong Development Bank.