China Opens "Financial Supermarkets"More than 100 "financial supermarkets" opened Sunday in 100 large and medium-sized Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, to offer a full range of financial services to individual customers.The financial supermarkets are operated by the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC), which ranked 341st in Fortune magazine's world top 500 last year. The ABC described this as a new marketing pattern for individual financial services. "Financial supermarkets change the traditional relations between customers and the banks in China," said Gao Honghua, general manager of the personal banking department under the ABC. Individual customers can enjoy all sorts of financial services at the "supermarket", just like those buying things at real supermarkets. The list of services includes some that are not provided in bank branches, such as conducting foreign currency transactions for individuals, providing individual use of loans and providing safe deposit boxes. Financial legal affairs offices, insurance companies and notarization administrations also do businesses in the "supermarket" so customers no longer need to go to different businesses for such services. "A small loan can be dealt within 24 hours," said a "supermarket" clerk. Asking for a loan is still a big thing for both Chinese individuals and banks. The procedure to grant loans in China is considered very complicated. "The competition in domestic financial markets will be hotter after China enters the WTO," said Gao Honghua, adding, "As for the individual financial services we target, better services lead to a bigger market share." The ABC witnessed a growth of 98 billion yuan (about 12 billion U.S. dollars) in deposits in the first six months of this year to add the total to 1.2 trillion yuan. Its individual use loans increased by 50 percent in the six months, totaling 100.6 billion yuan (nearly 12.5 billion U.S. dollars). "The total amount of individually used loans is expected to double by the end of this year because of the financial supermarkets," Gao predicted. |
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