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Shanghai Airlines has secured Yn3.5bn in loans from the Bank of China to fund a major expansion of its fleet. An official from the regional airline said that about 17 new planes, most of them from Boeing, would be added to its existing fleet of 23 aircraft. Shanghai Airlines booked a net profit of Yn170m […]

The slow move towards profitability may be too little too late for China’s banks, which need to make far greater use of the Yn14,400bn in savings sitting in their reserves in 2001. Positive headline figures for 2001 – Yn26.6bn in profits at the big four for 2001, compared with Yn14.7bn in 2000 – are deceptive. […]

Market opening threatens the viability of China’s tens of thousands of financial institutions. At the top of the banking hierarchy are the big four state commercial banks – Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank and the Agricultural Bank of China (ABC). They are the only banks with […]

Currently, foreign financial institutions have only a toehold in China. By the end of last year a total of 31 banks with branches in Shanghai and Shenzhen were conducting small volumes of yuan business with foreigninvested enterprises. They bought in local currency at a cost because they were not allowed to take deposits. According to […]

Technically insolvent, inefficient and prone to government interference, China’s largest banks are ill prepared to compete in a more competitive market post-WTO. But foreign banks will not have it all their own way. Atop-level financial meeting was convened last month focusing on the reform of China’s commercial banking sector. The meeting, which called for improved […]