US banks get green light for China securities joint ventures

J.P. Morgan (JPM.NYSE) and Morgan Stanley (MS.NYSE) have become the first US firms in six years to win approval for securities joint ventures in China, the Wall Street Journal reported. Through these joint ventures – with Shenzhen-based First Capital Securities and China Fortune Securities respectively – the companies will be able to underwrite stocks and bonds in mainland China. However, they will not be able to participate in sales or trading on the mainland, and their equity ownership is capped at 33%. Goldman Sachs (GS.NYSE) set up a foreign-invested securities enterprise in the country in 2004 and since then several European banks have followed suit, including UBS (UBS.NYSE, UBSN.SIX), Deutsche Bank (DB.NYSE, DBK.FWB) and Credit Suisse (CS.NYSE, CSGN.SIX). Morgan Stanley helped set up China International Capital Corp in 1995 but was gradually reduced to a passive investor. The Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges raised a combined US$72.1 billion through initial public offerings in 2010, but the domestic underwriting market is dominated by state-owned local brokerages.