Foreign insurance firms have closed a total of 11 offices in China so far this year, Reuters reported. The closures included Lincoln National offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the Shanghai office of Japan First Life and the Beijing and Guangzhou offices of Swiss Life. Insurance officials blamed the closures on the small size of […]
Category: Banking & Finance
Shenzhen is to sell shares in its municipallyowned enterprises to overseas investors, Xinhua reported. The city's mayor, Yu Youjun, said that the State Council strongly supported the initiative, which had not been tried before in China. Foreign investors will be invited to take stakes in the energy, water, gas, and public transport sectors. However, because […]
Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewer, has signed an agreement to buy 22 per cent of Tsingtao Brewery, 21st Century Business Herald said. The American brewer now holds 27 per cent of Tsingtao's shares listed on the Hong Kong stock market, making it the second largest shareholder in the company after Qingdao city's asset manage- ment […]
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Bank probe finds irregularities
An official investigation of China Everbright Bank has found widespread irregularities, South China Morning Post said. In the first such investigation since China adopted its Accounting Law, the Ministry of Finance sent more than 400 inspectors to 30 branches of the bank in August last year. The investigation was completed in November but the findings […]
Foreign banks in China licensed to do local currency business are protesting at a new rule by the central bank that will set limits on their borrowing of local currency, the Financial Times said. The People's Bank of China has told the banks that funds raised in bilateral loans from Chinese financial institutions would be […]