Round of Private Banks BeginsFour privately-owned commercial banks are expected to open around the time of China's expected accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO), said well-informed sources.Experts called the move a new round of opening-up in the domestic banking market. The launch comes at a time when most of the domestic commercial banks, including the Big Four -- the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Bank of China and the Agriculture Bank of China -- are faced with large international rivals after WTO accession. So far, four out of 10 planned private commercial banks have already finished their feasibility studies and are waiting for a final go-ahead from the top financial authorities. The four banks that are scheduled to be launched include the Taizhou-based Tailong Bank, Zhejiang Province, the Shenyang-based Ruifeng Bank, Liaoning Province, the Xi'an-based China Great Wall Bank, Shann'xi Province and a Jiangyin-based commercial bank, Jiangsu Province, that is still unnamed. And an unnamed Guangzhou-based private bank is also scheduled to finish preparations within two to three months. Other planned private commercial banks in Shanghai and Wuhan have also shown strong enthusiasm for involvement in the program, according to Xu Dianqing, a renowned professor with Peking University, who is now heading an expert group conducting feasibility studies of the opening of private banks. The smaller private banks are to be totally invested in by local private enterprises and individual investors without any involvement of State-owned assets. The opening of the banks, which, insiders say, has already received the green light from top authorities, is believed to be another crucial step taken by financial authorities to fuel the development of the stagnant domestic banking market into a more energetic and efficient one. And the launch would also be a necessary antidote to the vacuum that major State-owned commercial banks left when they transferred their operating focus from the whole country market to the major regions, big cities and key customers. |
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