CICC to become first domestic broker to control trust company

China International Capital Corp (CICC), one of the largest investment banks in China, will be the first domestic brokerage to buy partial control of a trust company, Bloomberg reported. Unnamed sources said that CICC hopes to get approval from regulators to purchase 35% of Zheshang Trust, a Hangzhou-based trust company. Trust companies, which are generally more lightly-regulated than banks in China, charge higher lending rates and offer a wider variety of financial products, particularly credit-related trust products. “Trust companies are like department stores for the financial sector,” said Li Yang, an analyst at consulting first Use Trust. “Securities companies can expand their playing field to include businesses that otherwise are off limits to them, including lending.”