China's brokerages faced with new competition, consolidation

Brokerages in China are preparing for rules expected to allow commercial banks and other finance firms to own a brokerage license by raising funds to expand margin trading and other businesses as some predict a series of takeovers, Reuters reported. With firms profits having more than doubled to US$16 billion in 2014, mergers “between banks and securities companies, insurers and banks, or insurers and securities companies are all likely to show up,” said Wang Dongming, the chairman of Citic Securities. “The strong will become stronger, and the weak will become weaker.”