Everbright Bank Expand Intermediate BusinessesThe Everbright Bank of China (EBC) announced Tuesday that the bank's intermediate businesses expanded by a big margin in the first two months this year, with the volume up more than 60 percent from the same period of last year.EBC sources said that by the end of February, the international settlement of intermediate businesses had risen to US$1.4 billion, the heftiest increase in years. A spokesman with the bank said that developing intermediate business was regarded as a major task for the bank to survive amid fiercer competition pending China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) and to garner a bigger market stake. He said that after China enters the WTO, the intermediate banking services would become a key area of competition for both domestic commercial banks and their foreign counterparts. To make early preparations, the bank not only made efforts to expand its traditional services, such as agent services, involving various fee collections and payments, but also joined hands with securities and insurance companies to introduce new financial services. In the next step, EBC plans to introduce investment consulting and fund custody services to the clients in line with relevant regulations and policies to seek new profit opportunities. |
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