China Economic ReviewAccording to China Insurance Regulatory Commission chairman Wu Xiaoping, 34 foreign insurance companies had been approved to conduct business in China by the start of June, People’s Daily reported. Foreign insurers operating in China had combined premium revenue of Yn3.2bn in 2001. In Shanghai and Guangzhou, the only two cities open to foreign insurers before […]
Alcatel has formed an integrated group of its Shanghai manufacturing operations and launched it as Alcatel Shanghai Bell at the end of May, South China Morning Post said. The head of Alcatel’s China operations said that it plans to become the mainland’s top telecommunications gear maker. To this end, the company will more than double […]
Postal savings accounts are increasingly popular, but the prospect of post offices being able to offer loans to rural enterprises threatens to undermine one of the few solvent branches of China’s financial system. By now, China watchers are well aware of the bad debt problems plaguing the country’s large stateowned banks, but other areas of […]
In recent years, the market share of RCCs been eroded by an even more obscure competitor, the state-run postal savings system. China’s post office maintains a network of more than 31,000 deposit-collection points, with roughly two-thirds in rural areas. Until now, the postal savings system been largely passive: post offices in rural China accept deposits […]
According to a recent report on China- Online.com, rural China is now facing a severe credit squeeze as the RCCs seek to clean up their books at the same time as the big four banks close branches in the countryside and the postal savings system (which traditionally does not make loans) takes a larger share […]