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Banking & Finance

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China’s banks remain bastions of profitability in a world of red ink
Mar 27, 2009 (WiC 8)

Given the modest amount of their own capital and their tiny loan-loss reserves, and after taking into account the magnitude of non-performing loans, several of China’s major banks are already insolvent.” This was the verdict – almost ...

Show me the money

Premier Wen Jiabao is “a little bit worried” about China’s dollar-denominated investments
Mar 20, 2009 (WiC 7)

Which assets is he most worried about? The Chinese press focus mostly on US Treasuries, with the state media reporting that its government has bought “low-risk but low-yield assets, such as US government bonds, to play it ...

The Xiaolan revolution

A communist party secretary and his banking experiment in Guangdong
Mar 20, 2009 (WiC 7)

In this era of internet banking and high tech finance, it may seem odd that China is copying a banking model established in the UK in 1810. But distinct parallels can be drawn between the Xiaolan Rural Bank and the world’s first mutual savings ...

China’s punters are buying shares again
Mar 13, 2009 (WiC 6)

China’s stock market performance so far this year seems to be reliving past glories, if current conditions are anything to go by. In the fortnight leading up to the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, over 876,000 new broking ...

Pudong versus Beijing

The battle to be China’s financial centre
Mar 6, 2009 (WiC 5)

You may think Shanghai is China’s financial centre. But Beijing has other ideas. Competition among the two cities has always been fierce, with Beijing being the political, and cultural capital; and Shanghai laying claim to commercial and ...

The banks that like to say yes

What lies behind the colossal increase in bank lending?
Feb 27, 2009 (WiC 4)

The credit crunch has taken many of us back to a more basic vocabulary, and not just in terms of our choice of expletive. The loss of confidence in the financial system is such that many are turning to the plumbing industry for reassurance. ...

Path of lease resistance

Explaining the rapid rise of lease finance in China
Feb 20, 2009 (WiC 3)

Money hides a thousand defects, the Chinese proverb suggests, but now is probably not a time to be worrying too much about that. Governments want banks to lend and in China the money is certainly flowing. The latest data suggests Rmb1.62 trillion ...

Gloom is boom for China’s underground banking system
Feb 13, 2009 (WiC 2)

When your bank account is as bare as a Soviet bakery under Brehznev, and you need ready cash, many Chinese are finding there might be only one place to go. Pawnbroking has a 3,000 year history in China, and along with prostitution is probably ...

Let a hundred funds bloom

Can domestic private equity funds flourish?
Feb 6, 2009 (WiC 1)

China’s investment in Blackstone’s IPO may not have been the most profitable experience, but that has not sated the government’s appetite for private equity. After years of watching Western private equity firms reap huge returns in ...

Enter the Leviathan

The government wants to list Agricultural Bank of China
Feb 6, 2009 (WiC 1)

At a time when some countries look to be nationalising their banking sectors, it is a welcome encouragement for the world’s remaining free marketeers that China is trying to do the opposite. It is ploughing ahead with the privatisation of its ...

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