Bank of China opened a private banking service in Beijing and
Shanghai yesterday, the first local bank to target the growing
ranks of the super rich in China.
The service is only for customers with over US$1 million to
invest and is a joint project with its partner the Royal Bank of
Scotland (RBS), which owns about 4.4 percent of the Chinese
bank.
"The thing that excites us is just the size of the marketplace,"
said Fred Goodwin, chief executive of the RBS.
China was home to 320,000 millionaires in 2005, according to a
report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch.
The total assets held by this group topped US$1.59 trillion at
the time, ranking China No 2 in the Asia-Pacific region after
Japan.
That number is bound to increase rapidly given the country's
continuing economic boom, said Li Lihui, president of Bank of
China.
The private banking business would operate under Bank of China's
name to start with, but Goodwin said the branding may change over
time.
Initially, the business will offer 12 products including foreign
exchange, subscriptions to initial public offerings and private
equity, said Yue Yi, general manager of personal banking at Bank of
China.
Bank of China's private client customer base, combined with the
experience of RBS in international private banking, gives it an
unrivalled position for the business, Goodwin said.
Foreign banks such as BNP Paribas, Citibank and Deutsche Bank
have already begun private-banking operations in China.
(China Daily March 29, 2007)