Domestic Banks Work Hand in HandBeijing Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and Beijing Department of China Minsheng Bank Monday morning signed an agreement for an overall business cooperation.China Minsheng Bank thereby becomes the third one to carry out all-round cooperation with the ICBC, thus pushing the trend of cooperation between domestic banks to a new height. Last year, the Bank of China (BOC) and China's Bank of Communications (CBOC) took the lead in signing an agreement on all-round cooperation. Later, ICBC and CITIC Industrial Bank, ICBC and Shenzhen Development Bank (SDB), BOC and China Merchants Bank (CMB) started similar cooperation in succession. Business conducted covers retail business, company business, settlement of accounts and other major banking services. While toasting to each other, presidents repeated the same remark, "with China's imminent entry into the WTO, domestic financial institutions should open their doors wide to each other so as to properly meet the new challenges". At the signing ceremony with the CMB, BOC president Liu Mingkang said, "There is no differentiation of big and small banks here, we have only one competitor, i.e., the foreign bank. The best way to meet the challenges is to strengthen the cooperation between domestic banks and realize complementation of advantages". Ma Weihua, president of CMB, seemed to have spoken out what was in the minds of those with big and small domestic banks when he said, "With the shortage of funds and outlets, and insufficient experience in market exploration, cooperation between domestic banks is the necessary choice and the general trend." By PD Online Staff Du Minghua |
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