Banking News
- Merchants Bank to open New York branch
Date: 12-Nov-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
THE U.S. Federal Reserve announced its approval Friday of an application by China Merchants Bank Co. to open a branch in New York.
The Fed's decision marks the first time since a 1991 law went into effect that the U.S. central bank has allowed a Chinese bank to open a branch in the United States.
Shenzhen-based China Merchants Bank, China's sixth-largest lender by assets, has assets of about US$145.6 billion. The Fed said the bank branch would engage in wholesale deposit-taking, lending, trade finance and other banking services.
Domestic banks recently have made a push to open branches in the United States, with an application still pending by leading lender Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.
Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of Communications Co. already have branches in the United States that were established before the 1991 law went into effect.
Chinese officials have prodded U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to approve the applications, arguing that Chinese banks should have more access to U.S. financial markets.
The Fed's decision could help support the U.S. Government's demands that China further open its own financial markets to U.S. companies.
China Merchants Bank, the country's largest credit-card issuer, submitted its application to the Fed in March.
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